Expert: Arlene Schulman - 8/21/2006

Question
I was wondering what was the audience like in shakespeare's time- what attracted them to his work- their social standing-general information on them?

Answer
Hi Jillian,

The audience in Shakespeare's time came from every level of society.  They were everyone from laborors and tradespeople to the nobility right up to the Court itself.

Shakespeare's company performed in a variety of places.  Their primary theatre was The Globe, and then, after 1608, also at the indoor Blackfriar's Playhouse.  The Globe was built in a roughly circular shape, open to the sky, with an open courtyard in the center where poorer people stood to watch the play. They were called Groundlings and paid a penny for their ticket and often leaned on the stage, talked back to the actors, bought fruit and other refreshments from wandering vendors and generally were very relaxed about their playgoing experience.  This Yard could hold as many as 1000 Groundlings.  

Around the Yard were three tiers of seats surrounding a thrust stage.  These seats cost more than simply standing in the Yard, and were covered and protected from the rain.  The seats could hold another 2000 people, and cost 2 pence.  You could also hire a cushion for another penny.  Although all three galleries cost the same to sit in, the middle gallery was considered the highest status. The lower gallery was still uncomfortably close to the yard, while the upper gallery had a reputation as a meeting place for unsavoury business deals, and working ground for more of the local prostitutes.  

The most expensive seats in the house were those known as the Lords Rooms. They were located immediatedly above and behind the stage in the area also used by the musicians. Although such a location may not seem ideal to the modern day theatregoer, they were well removed from the masses in the rest of the theatre, and allowed their patrons to be on display, so they could show off the latest fashions, and even the fact that they were rich enough to sit there. Although they could not see the play very well, they could hear it, and it was to hear plays that Elizabethans went to the theatre.  It is from this concept that the modern word audience is derived. Places in the Lords Rooms would have cost 6 pence each.

Blackfriars was an indoor theatre, and the layout was somewhat different.  There was no courtyard and the nobility paid higher prices to sit close to the stage, and even may have had some special seating actually on the stage.  The more common folk paid less to sit in the "balcony".  But basically the audiences were the same as at the Globe.  They performed in Blackfriars in the winter and the Globe in the nicer months.

However, Shakespeare's company often toured the countryside, especially during times when the London Theatres were closed during periods when the Plague was rampant.  Then they performed in country inns to the ordinary country folk, or in the great manors of the nobility.  

They also performed privately in the noble houses of London and it's environs, sometimes with specifically cuta and edited versions of their plays.  And they performed many times as well in the Court itself, both for Queen Elizabeth I and, later after she died, for King James I.  

Best,
Arlene (MsDirector)