Week Three- Shakespeare's London and Elizabethan audiences.

WEEK 3 - SHAKESPEARE’S LONDON AND ELIZABETHAN AUDIENCES

QUESTION: What was London like in Elizabethan times and who were the people attending the theatre?

Shakespeare worked in Elizabethan London, although he lived in Stratford. London was the biggest city and the wealthiest in England so this was where theatre was most popular. The people who live in London were richer than those who live in villages and towns, the people of London had more money to spend on entertainment so there were permanent playhouses in London due to this demand, and furthermore London was also the home to royalty and rich noble men who became patrons of theatre companies. The wealthys interest in theatre is apparent with records showing that Shakespeare’s company performed to the court of king James around 15 times per year between the years of 1603- 1613.

London at the time was also the largest growing city as people were migrating from the countryside and Europe, every available space was built on with it being estimated that London grew from around 50,000 to 200,000 residents between 1550 and 1600. The city was tightly packed and streets were narrow and dirty with people disposing of waste out of their windows onto the cobbled narrow streets and with little to no drainage the only thing that cleaned anything were scavenging birds, the city was also very loud with horses moving through the streets and street traders shouting. Nobody in the city drank water as it was not clean so they drank ale, the wealthier people drank wines.

There was alot of diesaese in the city with the black plauge killing 10,000 in 1593, this meant all theatres closed to try and prevent the spread of the plauge 

The city was centred around the river Thames and the only way to cross was London bride or the boats called ‘water taxis’.

Whilst there was a very high number of wealthy people in the city there were also poor people who were illiterate, due to this the globe theatre used flags to indicate what kind of show was going on that night as they couldn’t read. Black showed tragedies, white was comedy and red was history. The theatre was a very crowded place with more men than women generally. The richest didn’t need to go to the play houses as they could just have them put on in their courts.

It cost around 1 penny to stand in the yard of the globe, which wasn’t much money as there was 240 pennies to £1. For 2 pennies you could buy a seat on the benches in the lower galleries, for a few more pennies you could also sit on a cushion to make your seat more comfortable. The most expensive seats were ‘the lord’s rooms’ which started at a cost of 6 pennies. The low cost of the theatre is what made it so popular. The price for a standing ticket in the yard was the same as a price of bread at the time, however standing wasn’t very pleasant with there being no toilets and the ground being covered in ash and nut shells, it is also reported that the put smelt of garlic and some people said that no good citizen would been seen in the yard.  Audience member were not well behaved either, they would boo villains and cheer heroes and there were also many thieves. This many have been due to the fact they were all slightly drunk all the time.