The play’s one thing…

Elizabeth’s reign is renowned as the dawn of English theatre, when timeless talents such as Shakespeare and Marlowe emerged. But as James Sharpe reveals, a host of other entertainments and pastimes were available to rich and poor

In 1567, London grocer John Brayne embarked on a new business venture. At a cost of about £20, he built England’s first theatre in a yard at the Red Lion, a farm in Whitechapel just outside the City of London. The venture was not a successful one. Though the exact circumstances have proved impossible to delineate, the Red Lion soon fell into disuse as a theatre. Undeterred, in 1576 Brayne – together with his brother-in-law James Burbage, father of the actor Richard Burbage, Shakespeare’s associate – opened a more successful venture, known simply as The Theatre. That opening marked the beginning of a flourishing era of theatrical performances in London. During the last three decades of Elizabeth’s reign, Londoners could attend a number of theatres – most famously The Globe, which opened…

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The Story of the Elizabethans (Digital) - 1 Issue, The Story of the Elizabethans 2020

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