Unruly audiences and the theater of control in early modern London /
Unruly Audiences and the Theater of Control in Early Modern London explores the effects of audience riots on the dramaturgy of early modern playwrights, arguing that playwrights from Marlowe to Brome often used their plays to control the physical reactions of their audience. This study analyzes how,...
| Main Author: | |
|---|---|
| Format: | Book |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
London ; New York :
Routledge,
[2020].
|
| Series: | Studies in performance and early modern drama.
|
| Subjects: |
| Summary: | Unruly Audiences and the Theater of Control in Early Modern London explores the effects of audience riots on the dramaturgy of early modern playwrights, arguing that playwrights from Marlowe to Brome often used their plays to control the physical reactions of their audience. This study analyzes how, out of anxiety that unruly audiences would destroy the nascent industry of professional drama in England, playwrights sought to limit the effect that their plays could have on the audience. They tried to construct playgoing through their drama in the hopes of creating a less-reactive, more pensive and controlled playgoer. The result was the radical experimentation in dramaturgy that, in part, defines Renaissance drama. Written for scholars of early modern and Renaissance drama and theater, theatre history and early modern and Renaissance history, this book calls for a new focus on the local economic concerns of the theater companies as a way to understand the motivation behind the drama of early modern London. |
|---|---|
| Item Description: | Revision of author's thesis (doctoral)--Marquette University, 2011, titled Performing the audience : constructing playgoing in early modern drama. |
| Physical Description: | 264 pages ; 25 cm. |
| Bibliography: | Includes bibliographical references (pages [235]-256) and index. |
| ISBN: | 9780815369332 0815369336 |