Theatre and the English Public from Reformation to Revolution

Description

This book presents new and overarching perspectives on the relationship between theatre and public from the Henrician Reformation through the interregnum to the Restoration, combining vivid case studies with discussion of theatre's continued importance in shaping the early modern public. Considered from the vantage point of theatre, the early modern public becomes visible as an unruly agent of political change, a force that authorities both feared and appealed to, and one that proved ultimately beyond control. It was through theatrical strategies that rulers and their opposition addressed the early modern public, and in turn it was theatre's public potential that shaped the development of the stage during the revolutionary years of the seventeenth century. In this volume, Katrin Beushausen examines sources including irreverent satirical pamphlets, regal spectacles, anti-theatrical polemic and visions of state theatres, casting new light on the development of the early modern public and theatre.

Katrin Beushausen is an independent historian and theatre scholar, and an affiliate of the Freie Universitat Berlin, where she has taught on theatricality, political performance and theatrical publics. Parallel to her academic career, she works as a political campaigner and explores the relation between theatre and the public through site-specific performance projects in the public sphere.

'... this well-written book is a [must-read] to anyone interested in early modern theatricality, the English public, the Interregnum and their interactions.' Sonja Kleij, English '... the arguments at the heart of Theatre and the English Public are convincing, and the book as a whole successfully reframes debates about the relationship between theater and its publics.' Gavin Hollis, Renaissance Quarterly