Enticed by the profitability of the inn yard performances, as well as the protection offered by playing in the houses of nobles, some acting groups began to dream of owning their own theatres, where they would be free to perform and collect fees without having to pay an inn keeper, or be harassed by anyone. In 1576, James Burbage did just that. He opened The Theatre. Not only could he run his productions without having to pay someone else, he could gain even more profit by selling his own food and drink to his audiences. The Theatre was an immediate success, and very quickly others joined Burbage as theatre owners. The map shown in Figure 6 shows the locations and dates of opening of a number of the theatres established in London during this time.
Figure 6: London playhouses shown on a contemporary map (Mulryne, 14)
It is commonly accepted that the design of the Elizabethan theatres was based on the configuration of London inn yards, which had provided good performance spaces to the actors. In fact, the sketch of the interior of the Swan theatre (Figure 7) does closely resemble the picture of the White Hart Inn (Figure 4).
Figure 7: Interior of the Swan Theatre c. 1596, de Witt (Mulryne, 29)
Terrence Hawkes makes a valid argument that the design of the theatres may have come from another source, however, namely the bear baiting rings that could be found in many parts of London. Bear baiting was a gambling entertainment in which a bear was tied to a post and then forced to face packs of dogs. Spectators gambled on how many of the dogs the bear could kill. As Hawkes argues, the circular structure of the theatres is much like the structure of the bear baiting rings of the time. Compare below, a picture of a drawing of a bear baiting ring (Figure 8), and that of the new construction of the Globe Theatre (Figure 9).
Figure 8: Drawing of a bear baiting ring (Hawkes)
Figure 9: Picture of the new Globe Theatre, 1996 (Richard Kalina)
Furthermore, theatrical entrepeneures such as Philip Henslowe and Edward Alleyn invested in both bear baiting and theatre. Indeed in 1613, a theatre was opened which was capable of offering both forms of entertainment.
In 1613, the Globe Theatre caught fire during the production of Henry VIII and burned to the ground. Eight years later, the Fortune suffered the same fate. The Puritans took the opportunity provided by these events to re-enforce their belief that theatre was sacrilegious, claiming divine intervention. The fires were an act of God, as Prynne described in Hisriomastix, 1633:
The sudden fearful burning, even to the ground, both of the Globe and Fortune playhouses, no man percieving how these fires came. (Clunes, 51)
Prynne then goes on to describe these and other theatres as the "Devils chapels." The theatres were also beleaguered by the plague in London, as any assembly of people in a small and confined space promoted the disease. In 1642, civil war broke out in England, and under Oliver Cromwell, parliament made the following decree:
Whereas public sport doe not well agree with public calamities, …public stage playes …being spectacles of pleasure too commonly expressing lascivious mirth and levtie shall cease and be forborne. (Clunes, 51)
The theatres were all closed down (and most were, in fact, torn down). The only acting Cromwell would allow was in schools. However, local authorities were not always alert, or were sometimes convinced to turn a blind eye, and some acting did occur.
Private rooms in noble's houses continued to host performances, as did some inn yards, and even tennis courts at times were employed for performances. During this time productions were short, often farcical, and often performed with music. These were rudimentary operas, imitating the Italian style.
By the time the throne was restored under Charles I, the actors were ready to make a resurgence. "Restoration" theatre was born, and while the Puritans and many of the middle class would not support it, theatre had come to stay in London. New acting companies slowly developed, and new theatres were constructed. Elizabethan Theatre however, was not to return, its time having come and gone as a popular form of entertainment.
