Back to the Tudors calendar
This was the year that probably saw the
first performance of a play by William Shakespeare. Nobody knows when he wrote his plays but a good guess, from the Royal Shakespeare Company website and therefore
I am not going to argue, thinks that The Taming of the Shrew was one of the earliest while Henry VI Part II may have been the first performed in London. Theatres
had been opening all over London for several years. Christopher Marlowe was another popular playwright.
By 1595, 15,000 people a week were watching plays in London. It was during Elizabeth's reign that the first real theatres were built in England. Before
theatres were built, actors travelled from town to town and performed in the streets or outside inns.
However, theatre goers had no plays to watch in 1593 as a Plague hit London and all theatres were closed for the year. 15,000 people are thought to have
died from this plague in London.
The very famous Globe Theatre opened in 1599. The cost made it possible for almost anyone to go. For 1p (£5 today) you could stand at the front of the
stage. These people were called groundlings. For 3p (£15) you could have a seat with a cushion and for 6p (£30) you could get a place in the galleries. Our story
this week is all about going to a play.
