Overview

This title, filled with anecdote, recreates the lives and times of playwrights and actors, and the world in which they lived from 1578 when Burbage built the first purpose built theatre to 1620 when the great age came to its end.

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9780750933681

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Reviews

Full of rumbustious larger-than life characters, this book charts the beginnings of the professional theatre in England in the period between 1576 and 1620. A typical visit to the theatre then involved a mainly male audience, who paid a range of entry prices and who enjoyed a good story and rich language. They had a staggering amount of plays to choose from, in a golden era when flourishing companies of actors constantly required new plays from new dramatists. The comedies, tragedies and historical epics audiences flocked to see and the lives and contributions of many writers (and actors) less well-known than Shakespeare, Marlowe or Jonson are included here entertainingly, in their social and political contexts. The author's knowledgeable passion for this period, and her involvement with the Swan Theatre in Stratford have helped to encourage the revival of many neglected works. A lively and enjoyable book. (Kirkus UK)

Author Information

Judith Cook is a journalist, playwright and writer of non-fiction. Her books on the theatre include 'Director's Theatre', 'Women in Shakespeare', 'Shakespeare's Players' and 'Backstage'. She is a part-time lecturer at Exeter University in the Department of Elizabethan/Jacobean Theatre, and she lives in Newlyn, Cornwall.

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