Before Shakespeare

‘Before Shakespeare‘ is a research project, based at the University of Roehampton and King’s College London, that explores the earliest commercial playhouses of Elizabethan England.

These were pioneering, unusual and sometimes shocking spaces. They also hosted a range of extraordinary and innovative plays, which warrant greater presence in contemporary performance.

In this talk, the project team will ask the fundamental question, ‘what is a playhouse?’, and explore surviving documents that tell us what we know about these spaces, and rethink the builders, managers, and audiences who brought them into being.

Speakers include Dr Andy Kesson, reader at University of Roehampton, Dr Lucy Munro, reader in Early Modern Literature at King's College London, Dr Callan Davies, research fellow at University of Roehampton.