Theatre and the English Public from Reformation to Revolution

The first study to systematically trace the impact of theatre on the emerging public of the early modern period.

Katrin Beushausen (Author)

9781316632666, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 12 November 2020

312 pages, 11 b/w illus.
23 x 15 x 1.7 cm, 0.46 kg

'… the arguments at the heart of Theatre and the English Public are convincing, and the book as a whole successfully reframes debates about the relationship between theater and its publics.' Gavin Hollis, Renaissance Quarterly

This book presents new and overarching perspectives on the relationship between theatre and public from the Henrician Reformation through the interregnum to the Restoration, combining vivid case studies with discussion of theatre's continued importance in shaping the early modern public. Considered from the vantage point of theatre, the early modern public becomes visible as an unruly agent of political change, a force that authorities both feared and appealed to, and one that proved ultimately beyond control. It was through theatrical strategies that rulers and their opposition addressed the early modern public, and in turn it was theatre's public potential that shaped the development of the stage during the revolutionary years of the seventeenth century. In this volume, Katrin Beushausen examines sources including irreverent satirical pamphlets, regal spectacles, anti-theatrical polemic and visions of state theatres, casting new light on the development of the early modern public and theatre.

Prologue: theatre, theatricality and the public in early modern England
1. Styles of the stage: addressing the public in the post-reformation period
2. From audience to public: theatre, theatricality and the people before the Civil Wars
3. Public performances: strategies of theatricality during the interregnum
4. Playing with prohibition: discourses of theatre during the interregnum
Epilogue: theatre and the English public beyond the Restoration.

Subject Areas: Society & culture: general [JF], Literary studies: plays & playwrights [DSG], Literary studies: c 1500 to c 1800 [DSBD], Literary studies: classical, early & medieval [DSBB], Theatre studies [AN]