Shakespeare's Opposites: The Admiral's Company 1594-1625

Description

The Admiral's Men is the acting company that staged Christopher Marlowe's plays while its companion company was giving the first performances of Shakespeare. Unlike the Shakespeare company, there is plenty of evidence available telling us what the Admiral's company did and how it staged its plays. Not only do we know far more about the design of its two playhouses, the Rose and the Fortune, than we know of any other playhouse from the time, including the Globe, but we have Henslowe's Diary. This recorded everything the Admiral's company performed from 1594 to 1600 and after, what the company bought to stage its plays, who performed which parts, who wrote which plays and even how much they were paid. The first history to be written of the Admiral's Men, this book tells us not only a great deal about the company's own work, but also how the Shakespeare company operated.

Andrew Gurr is Emeritus Professor of English at the University of Reading. As chief academic advisor, he was a key figure in the project to rebuild Shakespeare's Globe Theatre in London. His many publications include The Shakespearean Stage 1574-1642 (Cambridge University Press, fourth edition 2009), Playgoing in Shakespeare's London (Cambridge University Press, third edition 2004) and The Shakespearian Playing Companies (1996). Professor Gurr regularly contributes articles on Shakespeare to publications ranging from Shakespeare Survey to the Times Literary Supplement.

Review of the hardback: '... Shakespeare's Opposites is a highly recommended reading for students and scholars of early modern drama and performance history alike. It provides profound detail, specific information and reference material for the expert while offering an alternative access to the undergraduate who wants to enrich his or her appreciation of the poetic value of early modern drama with an understanding of its particular impact in performance.' Birgit Walkenhorst Review of the hardback: 'Shakespeare's Opposites is a necessary work, and an impressive one.' Around the Globe 'In Shakespeare's Opposites Gurr meets a new challenge: the near-impossible task of making historical bricks with Henslowe's straw. The result is an authoritative work, invaluable for every theatre historian and illuminating to every student of Elizabethan theatre.' Alastair Fowler, The Times Literary Supplement 'This is a groundbreaking work of repertory history by today's most learned, versatile, and acute historian of English Renaissance drama.' Charles Whitney, The Ben Jonson Journal