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• Elizabeth Theatre also called Renaissance theatre
• refers to performance plays which blossomed in time of Elizabeth I  (1558-1603) in London

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• Elizabethan drama -> dominant art form
• plays morally complex, vital and diverse

• consisted of simple morality plays, interludes and skits
• performed at banquets of Queen’s father Henry VIII or public schools
• earliest plays put on for university students
•referred to comedies of Roman playwrights Plautus , Terence and tragedies of Senca

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• In the beginning of 16th Century many plays were based on religious themes
Called „morality plays“
• showed good and bad conduct
• „Miracle plays“ showed scenes from the Bible

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• The themes changed during the reign of Elizabeth
• Playwrights began to write comedies and tragedies
• By the end of her reign, playwrights like Marlowe, Johnson and Shakespeare were writing the plays for which they are famous now

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• Main exception: plays put on by wandering groups of actors „strolling players“
• Those plays were often far from religion
• Authorities tried to ban them

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• As the watching of plays became famous, theaters were built instead of using courtyards of inns
• 1576 James Burbage built first English playhouse, called ‚ ‚‘‘The Theatre‘‘
• supported by young playwrights from Cambridge & Oxford Universities
• other buildings: Rose, Swan and Globe theatres in London ( 1587-1598) and ‚‘‘The Curtain‘‘

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Drawing of the Swan Theatre, London in 1596

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Drawing of the Swan Theatre, London in 1596

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• attracted people from all classes - the Upper Class nobility and the Lower class commoners.

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• The theatre performed regular and cheap plays for the public
• Elizabeth encouraged the theatre which made it fashionable

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• The plays had to be performed in daylight.

•A flag would be flown from the top of the theatre to show a play was going to be performed.

•People sat around the stage in galleries.

The cheapest place was in front of the stage where ordinary people stood. They were known as ‘groundlings’.

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•There was very little scenery – a character would tell the audience where the scene was set.

• Women’s parts were played by boys.

Long speeches gave actors a chance to change their clothes.

• There was generally plenty of violence in the plays – Tudor audiences loved it.