Early Cambridge Theatres: College, University and Town Stages, 1464-1720

The excavations of the Rose and the Globe theatres have created a new context for the study and reconstruction of the English Renaissance theatre. This book engages with this debate by attempting a reconstruction of early Cambridge theatres in the context of the professional theatres of Renaissance London. Cambridge provides a rich source of material: most of the college halls and chapels in which scaffold-theatres were constructed still stand, while records of the Cambridge theatres and the plays performed in them survive in abundance. The book includes a full survey of some dozen Cambridge colleges, the university’s commencement stage, and extra-mural theatrical sites used by travelling professional companies, which lead to useful comparisons with the theatres of London. The author concludes with a plea for greater attention to documentary evidence in reconstructing the English Renaissance theatre.