WEEK 3 - SHAKESPEARE’S LONDON AND ELIZABETHAN AUDIENCES

Who came to the theatres? 

 In general, there were more men than women who went to the theatre, but there was a huge variation in the type of people who went. Somebody described the audience of a show as ‘a gang of porters and carters’. Other people said it wad filled with servants and apprentices spending all their spare time there. However, the wealthy and elite members of society also went to the theatre. Occasionally, the royal family also went to the theatre. However, they didn’t go to public theatres,instead they summoned a group of skilled actors to perform at the courts of Elizabeth I and James I. This happens in A Midsummer Night's dreams where the mechanicals perform for the duke. I find it interesting how William Shakespeare was often influenced by his surroundings and included these in his famous plays.

How much did it cost? 

The cheapest tickets in an outside theatre were only 1 penny, these tickets bought you a place among the ‘groundlings’ standing in the ‘yard’ around the stage.  Bench seats were two pennies and these were situated in the lower galleries which surrounded the yard.  The most expensive seats were in the ‘Lord’s Rooms’. these seats usually cost around 6 pennies. The tickets to watch a piece of theatre were extremely cheap in comparison to today's society where tickets to see a west end show may cost around £80. This influenced why theatre was so popular and loved in Elizabethan times.

How did the audience behave? 

Some of the rich or powerful members of Elizabethan society went to the theatre to be seen and admired rather than to watch and enjoy the show. They dressed in their best clothes and some people would sit on the stage so that they could be seen by everyone. A lot of people in the audience were very loud and rude rather than watching shows in silence like we do today. This suggest that people went to the theatre as a social event or for fun rather than purely to enjoy the performance. They clapped the heroes and booed the villains, and cheered the special effects. It seems strange that they cheered the special effects as this is so unheard of in today's society. However, cheering heroes and booing villains is still common, especially in pantomimes. The theatre wasn't always a pleasant environment due to a large number of thieves  in the audience and occasionally fights broke out. In indoor theatres, the audience were thought to be more educated and richer than the audiences of an outdoor theatre. 

What was London like?

London was quickly growing due to migration from citizens from rural countryside areas into the city.  Between 1550 and 1600, the population grew from around 50,000 people to over 200,000. New buildings were being built everywhere in order to create room for the new people. Outside, the suburbs grew steadily into the countryside. London was a bustling, overcrowded city. The city was ridden with a large number of thieves and the overcrowding brought diseases such as the plague which struck almost every summer in Elizabethan times. In 1593 about about 10,000 people were killed and all the theatres were closed.

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