Elizabethan Stage Conventions and Modern Interpreters

Alan Dessen reconstructs the stage in the Elizabethan era from scrutinising four hundred manuscripts.

Alan C. Dessen (Author)

9780521311618, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 30 January 1986

204 pages
21.6 x 13.8 x 1.5 cm, 0.265 kg

' … presented with vigorous clarity, his experience of modern productions demonstrates his concern with the continuing stage life of the plays he discusses.' The Times Literary Supplement

Alan Dessen samples about four hundred manuscripts and printed plays to record the original staging conventions of the age of Shakespeare. After studying the stage properties, movements and configurations implicit in recurrent phrases and stage directions, he concludes that Elizabethan spectators, less concerned with realism than later generations, were used to receiving a kind of theatrical shorthand transmitted by the actors from the playwright. Professor Dessen both describes this shorthand (e.g. the use of nightgowns, boots and dishevelled hair) and draws attention to the implications of his findings for modern interpreters, addressing not only critics and teachers but also editors, actors and directors.

Preface
Note on texts and old spelling
1. The arrow in Nessus: Elizabethan clues and modern detectives
2. Interpreting stage directions
3. The logic of 'this' on the open stage
4. Elizabethan darkness and modern lighting
5. The logic of 'place' and locale
6. The logic of stage violence
7. Theatrical metaphor: seeing and not-seeing
8. Conclusion: Elizabethan playscripts and modern interpreters
Notes
List of plays and editions
Index.

Subject Areas: Literary studies: plays & playwrights [DSG]