Curtain Theater

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Curtain Theater
Curtain Theater circa 1600 (cylindrical building in the background). Some authorities believe this to be a depiction of The Theater, the other Elizabethan theater in Shoreditch. Further to the East in this illustration is a building with a flag on it which is now thought to be the curtain.
location
Address: 18 Hewett Street
City: London (Shoreditch)
Coordinates: 51 ° 31 '23 "  N , 0 ° 4' 47"  W Coordinates: 51 ° 31 '23 "  N , 0 ° 4' 47"  W.
Architecture and history
Opened: 1577 (6 months construction time)
Spectator: at least 1,500 places
After 1624 no more mentions and gone

Rediscovered during excavations in June 2012.

The Curtain Theater is marked at the top right

The Curtain Theater was an Elizabethan theater on Hewett Street, Shoreditch (part of what is now the London Borough of Hackney ), just outside the City of London . It opened in 1577 and kept the stage going until 1624.

The curtain was erected approximately 180 meters from the first London theater since Roman times, The Theater , which was built a year earlier, in 1576. The name Curtain (English for "curtain") comes from the neighboring lands, which were called Curtain Close . These in turn got its name from the curtain wall (English "Curtain"), a part of medieval ramparts between two bastions . So it has nothing to do with the nearby theater curtain. During archaeological excavations in 2012, the remains of the Curtain were rediscovered. It was surprisingly found that the theater was built in a square and not, as previously assumed, round. A 14 m wide stage was discovered, an indication of a tunnel below and lower galleries . There were also objects such as a clay bird's whistle; clay money containers; Glass beads (probably for costumes) and a small statue of the Roman god Bacchus sitting astride a barrel.

history

The Curtain Theater was built in Shoreditch in 1577 and was London's second theater. Little is known about the companies playing here or the plays listed. The first recorded mention of the house comes from 1584, when the City of London asked the parish of Shoreditch to close their theaters. The owner appears to have been a Henry Lanman known as a " gentleman ". Lanman reached an agreement with the owner of the neighboring, older The Theater, James Burbage , to operate the Curtain as an addition to the representative theater . Between 1597 and 1599, the Curtain became the preferred venue for Lord Chamberlain's Men , William Shakespeare's troupe . Those were evicted from The Theater as there was a dispute over the lease extension between the owners and the owner of the property. The curtain was the premiere location of various new Shakespeare plays, including Romeo and Juliet (to great applause) and Henry IV. Part I and Henry IV., Part 2 . The Lord Chamberlain's Men also performed “Every Man in His Humor” by Ben Jonson in 1598 , with Shakespeare on the stage.

When the Globe Theater , which was to replace the theater (built by Burbage's son Richard and others), was ready for occupancy in 1599 , the Lord Chamberlain's Men left the curtain. The agreement between Henry Lanman and James Burbage also stipulated that the revenues of both theaters would be divided equally for seven years until 1585. In Shakespeare studies: An annual gathering of Research, Criticism and Reviews, John Leeds Barroll mentions the fact that Henry Lanman offered the theater operator to provide his curtain as a relief building. From this, and from the agreement of both of them to split the income equally, he concludes that Lanman and the Curtain, working with the theater, made good profits.

As far as is known, Lanman ran the theater as a sole proprietor; shortly before his death in 1606, he is said to have converted the property into a kind of stock corporation, according to the Shakespearean Edmund Chambers (1866–1954). Thomas Pope , a member of the Lord Chamberlain's Men, owned a stake in the curtain and performed it in his last will in 1603. As did the King's Men drama troupe , John Underwood , in 1624. The fact that two of the shareholders were Shakespeare’s troops suggests that the Curtain ownership redesign came about when the Lord Chamberlain's Men were there played. James Burbage also had shares in the Curtain.

The Curtain Theater during the 2016 excavations

Due to an outbreak of plague in the city, London's theaters, including the Curtain, were closed between September 1592 and April 1594. In 1597, the authorities received a request from citizens that no more performances should take place at the two theaters that year, although the theater was not played that year anyway due to the lease disputes. The curtain was mentioned in John Stow's Survey of London of 1598, but no longer in the 1603 edition. In 1600 the Privy Council tried in vain to close the Curtain Theater. In 1603 the Curtain became the venue for the Queen Anne's Men (who in February of the previous year were still playing Thomas Heywood's "A Woman Kill'd With Kindness" as Worcester's Men at the Rose Theater ). 1607 "The Travels of the Three English Brothers" (by William Rowley , John Day and George Wilkins ) was performed in the curtain.

The curtain was used from 1577 to at least 1624; the further fate is uncertain as there are no further records after that. The reason for the closure is also unknown. However, the building could have stood until the outbreak of the English Civil War .

Localization and excavations

The Curtain was known to be near The Theater on Hewett Street, but the exact location was long unknown. But there was already a commemorative plaque on the 18 Hewett Street building.

In June 2012, archaeologists from the Museum of London Archeology (MOLA) announced that they had found the remains of the theater during test excavations on an industrial wasteland . In 2013 plans were announced to build a £ 750 million development project called "The Stage", comprising a 37-story building (including offices and over 400 condominiums), a Shakespeare museum, an outdoor stage with 250 seats and a park; for this purpose, the remains of the curtain should be accessible under glass. Completion is planned for 2020.

In May 2016, the archaeologists reported that the building was constructed exclusively for the purpose of theater and, unusually for the time, it was rectangular instead of round or polygonal . The walls are still one and a half meters high; The MOLA identified the inner courtyard, which was designed with compacted gravel (which was used as a spectator area, the so-called pit ) and inner walls that supported the galleries . According to the archaeological findings, the theater measured 22 m in width and 30 m in length. These galleries were wooden and covered, with middle and upper sections for the more affluent clientele. The galleries were arranged in a straight line.

Smaller objects were also unearthed, such as glass beads, needles, drinking containers and tobacco pipes made of clay. The team also came across a metal purse attachment and a token made of clay (presumably a beer token ), as well as personal items, including a (broken) comb made of animal bones. There is also a contemporary clay bird whistle. However, it is questionable whether the whistle is more a toy for a spectator child or a sound prop for the performance.

In November 2016, a tunnel structure was uncovered, which was accessible through doors on both sides of the stage. This should allow actors to step down on one side and surprisingly reappear on the other. Fragments of clay money boxes were also found. These almost completely closed cash boxes were used to collect the visitors' money and then to be smashed in the office for removal and counting. The word "box office" used in English for the (evening / day) box office has its origins in the use of these cash cassettes ("box").

additional

A reconstruction of the Curtain Theater appears in the 1998 film Shakespeare in Love .

In Glasgow there was from 1933 until the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939 a theater company called "The Curtain", consisting of amateurs . She was the successor to the short-lived " Tron Theater Club" from 1932 and her goal was primarily to revive the Scottish theater culture that had been lost over the centuries .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Curtain Elizabethan Theater . Elizabethan Era Online. Retrieved May 7, 2016.
  2. ↑ northwest Bawcutt, The Control and Censorship of Caroline Drama: The Records of Sir Henry Herbert, Master of the Revels, 1623-1673 , Oxford, 1996, pages 141 and 150th
  3. ↑ Romeo's and Juliet's first theater discovered from Der Spiegel on June 9, 2012
  4. ^ Joseph Quincy Adams, Shakespearean Playhouses , Boston, 1917, p. 76.
  5. ↑ a b c d e Julian Bowsher (Ed.): Shakespeare's London Theatreland: Archeology, History and Drama . Museum of London Archeology, 2012, ISBN 978-1-907586-12-5 , pp. 9 (English).
  6. ^ EK Chambers: The Elizabethan Stage Volume 3, Oxford, 1923, p. 359.
  7. ↑ Tiffany Stern (Ed.): Making Shakespeare: From Stage to Page . Routledge , 2004, ISBN 978-0-415-31965-2 , pp. 9 (English, limited preview in Google Book Search).
  8. ^ William Ingram: The Business of Playing: The Beginnings of the Adult Professional Theater in Elizabethan London , Cornell University Press, 1992, p. 222.
  9. ^ Edmund Kerchever Chambers: The Elizabethan Stage , Volume 2, Clarendon Press, Oxford 1923, p. 403
  10. ^ A b John Payne Collier (Ed.): The works of William Shakespeare . General Books, 2012, ISBN 978-0-217-29021-0 , pp. 9 (English, limited preview in Google Book Search).
  11. ^ David L. Smith, Richard Strier, David Bevington: The Theatrical City: Culture, Theater and Politics in London, 1576-1649 , Cambridge University Press 2002, ISBN 0-521-52615-9
  12. ↑ a b Shakespeare Curtain Theater: Remains reveal toy used for sound effects from BBC News on May 15, 2016, accessed October 6, 2019
  13. ^ The Curtain . Shakespeare Online. Retrieved October 7, 2019.
  14. ^ The Curtain Theater . London Borough of Hackney. February 28, 2007. Retrieved October 6, 2019.
  15. ^ Curtain Theater , Information from the Museum of London Archeology, June 6, 2012, accessed October 6, 2019
  16. ↑ Shakespeare's Curtain theater unearthed in east London , by Maev Kennedy , from The Guardian, June 6, 2012 (accessed October 6, 2019)
  17. ↑ New £ 750m development centered around Shoreditch remains of Shakespearean theater in The Daily Telegraph on February 8, 2016
  18. ↑ Curtain lifts on open-air stage at Shakespeare theater site in Shoreditch from Evening Standard January 24, 2013, accessed October 6, 2019
  19. ↑ The Stage, Shoreditch . April 12, 2016. Retrieved April 12, 2016.
  20. ↑ a b Did Shakespeare write Henry V to suit London theater's odd shape? Maev Kennedy in The Guardian November 10, 2016
  21. ↑ a b Archaeologists reveal initial findings from detailed excavation at Shakespeare's Curtain Theater from HeritageDaily, accessed October 6, 2019
  22. ↑ 500-year-old Romeo And Juliet prop found in dig at Shakespeare's Curtain Theater by Rachel Bishop in the Daily Mirror on May 18, 2016
  23. ↑ Will theater revelations shed light on Shakespeare's secrets? Giles Broadbent, from "The Wharf" from November 15, 2016, English ( Memento from November 16, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
  24. ^ Archaeologists Find Early Shakespeare Theater Was Rectangular . National Public Radio .
  25. ↑ Shakespeare clues found after Shoreditch exacerbation in Evening Standard of November 10, 2016, accessed October 6, 2019
  26. ↑ Josh Loeb: Mysteries unearthed in Shoreditch excavation of Shakespeare's Curtain Theater . November 10, 2016. Retrieved October 6, 2019.

literature

  • Edmund Kerchever Chambers: The Elizabethan Stage , Issue 2, Clarendon Press, Oxford 1923
  • Edmund Kerchever Chambers: The Elizabethan Stage Issue 5, Oxford University Press, New York 2009
  • Edmund Kerchever Chambers: William Shakespeare: A Study of Facts and Problems Volume 1, Clarendon Press, Oxford 1930
  • Samuel Schoenbaum : William Shakespeare: A Compact Documentary Life . OUP, 1987
  • J. Shapiro: 1599: A Year in the Life of Shakespeare . Faber and Faber, 2005
  • M. Wood: In Search of Shakespeare . BBC Worldwide, 2003

Web links

Commons : Curtain Theater  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files