A king’s man’s lifeThe theatres and troupes When Shakespeare first came to London, there were about four established theatres close by the town’s borders. These theatres were called the Theatre, the Curtain, the Rose and the Swan, with the Theatre being the first theatre in London. The Theatre was later put up at the other side of the Thames and renamed the Globe in 1598. There were other places to perform plays, such as the yard of inns, but these theatres were the only ones to provide plays with professional acting troupes. These troupes, or companies were by law supported by wealthy patrons, whom they named themselves after. Shakespeare joined the troupe the Lord Chamberlain’s men, or simply the Chamberlain’s men, as an actor and soon started to help with writing plays as well. The Chamberlain’s men put up plays for students, "ordinary" people, nobles and even the Queen, Elizabeth I. All plays were put on in the afternoon during days with good weather. This was due to Elizabethan theatres being built without whole roofs to make as much use as possible of the daylight. Only the balconies and half of the stage had roofs. The theatre opened in early autumn and continued through the winter to avoid the plague that broke out during summers. The Chamberlain’s men used the summers, like many other acting companies, to tour around the countryside. There were no moving sets, so the actors often had to tell the audience what location they were supposed to be at or use a narrator who could explain shifts of scenes. Actors could be lowered down or raised in ropes through the ceiling or through trapdoors in the stage. Hamlet’s father’s ghost speaks form underneath the scene and Hamlet says, "Come on - you hear this fellow in the cellarage". After the death of Queen Elizabeth I in Mars 1603, James I (also known as Jacob IV of Scotland) became king. One of his first actions was to give the Chamberlain’s men the privilege to freely work their art. This was completed on May 17th 1603 and after that, the Chamberlain’s men became the King’s men. The actors During this time, it was quite common that actors had a big part in the outcome of the play. Scripts and lines were changed during rehearsals and actors often helped with writing plays. The actors themselves, as a rule, specialized themselves in one type of part, such as comedy characters, tragedy characters, heroes, fools etc. Women weren’t allowed on stage during this time, so young boys who’s voices hadn’t yet begun to break played the women’s parts. This sometimes called for the boys to play women who played men, in fact, five of Shakespeare’s leading women does this. Once the boys who played women became men, they couldn’t work as actors any more. Instead, they moved on to become stage workers and such because they were too specialized in women’s parts to play anything else. The companies often put on up to six different plays a week and over seventeen new and other plays a season. Since the plays were put on in the afternoon, all rehearsing, costume making and other preparations had to be done in the mornings by everyone in the company. This left a tight schedule to learn new lines and when a play was put on for the first time, it was not unordinary that the actors had learnt their lines by themselves and only acted out the play once or twice together before the premiere. Therefore, a lot of the plays consist of lines such as "for here comes", "who goes there" or "fare you well, gentlemen" to help actors with their cues. The actors only had the pages of the scenes in which they appeared in themselves; sometimes only the actor’s own lines and some small cues were given. Also, the writer of the company often wrote plays directly for the actors so that the parts would suit them. Some famous Elizabethan actors include Richard Burbage and William Sly, who both belonged to the Chamberlain’s men. Richard Burbage was a very famous actor who specialized himself in tragedies and played Macbeth, Hamlet and king Lear for Hamlet. William Sly, on the other hand was a comedian for the Chamberlain’s men and it is said that Shakespeare wrote the roles of some of the more sober fools, such as Feste from Twelfth Night (or, what you will) directly for him. Shakespeare himself is said to have played some major roles in his own plays, the role as the ghost of Hamlet’s father is believed to have been his favourite. The audience During the Elizabethan era, there were no strict rules for theatres like there are today. Audience members would chat, eat, drink, scream, pickpocket and sometimes-even throw rotten fruit at bad actors or join in on brawls onstage while the play went on. Rude comments and jeering at the actors expense were common, especially in the area in front of the scene, which was the cheapest place to watch the play from. In some prologues and epilogues, the audience were addressed directly by an actor or a chorus who narrated the play or told a soliloquy. A soliloquy is a sort of a monologue in which the character voices his or hers thoughts out loud to the audience. References on stage There are many different things mentioned in Shakespeare’s plays, which can be seen as references to occurrences and places known to the Elizabethan audience. Some are just coincidences and others are no more than speculations but they are interesting because it would surely strike a chord with the audience that the audience of today might not recognise. We do know that Shakespeare hade made at least two direct references to the Theatre, or the Globe in Henry V; "Within this wooden O", and the Tempest "the great globe itself". Also, since Shakespeare wrote for the stage, many of his works include ways of addressing things so that the audience would not miss especially important plot points. This was accomplished by addressing things three times, one for each side of the stage. During this time, the Thames was the main traffic route and Thames’ working oarsmen often called "Eastward Ho... Westward Ho..." as they rowed back and forth between the shores. Maybe Viola’s line "Westward Ho, then" is a reference to this as it was a part of daily London life at Shakespeare’s time, something that the audience would understand and recognise. Fools Fools and jesters play a big part in some of Shakespeare’s plays and the parts were often tailor-made for the company’s main comedian. The fools sometimes acted as narrators, making comments on the progress of the story and observing everyone else making fools of themselves. The statements that the only one who is not a fool, is the fool himself is common in Shakespeare’s works, most noticeable in Trolius and Cressida and Twelfth night (or, what you will) - twelfth night was during the Elizabethan age known as the feast of fools. Twelfth night also features a reference to Trolius and Cressida. Feste, the fool and Viola in man’s disguise have a conversation about begging: Viola: I understand you, sir: ‘tis well begged. Feste: The matter, I hope, is not great, sir, begging but a beggar: Cressida was a beggar." While it’s not certain that it’s a reference to his own play, it’s certainly a reference to the medieval tale he based the play on. The fools often stand beside the main plot and offer another view on the story, Jaques’ famous line from As You Like It, which is often quoted, goes: And all the men and women merely players: They have their exits and their entrances; And one man in his time plays many parts, His acts being seven ages." The fools often make fun of their masters, mimicking them because they are the real fools and because the masters are unaware of this, they can continue to laugh at their fools’ mischief, just like the actors mimic the real life and the audience laugh without recognizing it’s being ridiculed. Back to information |