The Winter's Tale - Genre (2)

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  • By 1608, however, The King’s Men were able to perform at the second building of Blackfriars Theatre (objections from the neighbourhood had precluded this before) and with this came some exciting new freedoms and capabilities.
  • The theatre was indoors, completely closed off from the elements and was one of the first commercial theatre spaces to use artificial lighting, offering a very different atmosphere to the raucous outdoor throngs at the Globe.
  • Protection from the weather meant more opportunities to use rich and lavish costumes such as those seen in masque performances at court, and there was broader scope to experiment with special effects.
  • In short, the theatre itself gave the company a more controlled environment in which to produce exciting and spectacular plays, and playwrights like Shakespeare would have begun to write accordingly.
  • This, many believe, accounts for highly visual set-pieces like the statue scene – clearly calibrated for maximum impact of wonderment – which are a definite feature of those works deemed ‘Last plays’.
  • Of course, the two…

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