1. BBL4308 Shakespeare and his Contemporaries
Blackfriars Theatre (Indoor Playhouse)
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2. Let’s Recap Location of indoor playhouse? Size? The kind of audience?
Other info?
Let’s Recap
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3. The Blackfriars Theatre was located in the City of London
It was originally a Dominican convent
The monastery estates came to be commonly known as “Blackfriars” due to the black robes worn by the Dominican monks
It was no longer declared a sacred place when Henry VIII dissolved the monasteries, and thereafter served a number of public functions, as a depository for records, a house of parliament, and a meeting place for the Privacy Council
Blackfriars was the location of many historic events such as the divorce hearing of Catherine of Aragon ( ) and King Henry VIII ( )
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4. The Building consisted of “collection of rooms, large and small, cellars and yards and including seven great upper rooms”, which had formerly been one great room.
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5. Part of the Quadrangle of the Blackfriars
Part of the Quadrangle of the Blackfriars
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6. The First Blackfriars. Reconstruction by Effie W. Best. T
The First Blackfriars.  Reconstruction by Effie W. Best.  T The stage is set for a performance of Lyly's Campaspe. Courtesy of Michael Best, Shakespeare's Life and Times.
The theatre was small perhaps 46 feet (14m) long and 25 feet (7.6m) wide (14 by 8 metres).
Audience had to play an admission fee (apparently fourpence); this factors limited attendance at the theatre to well off citizens and nobles.
This reconstruction shows an empty stage set for Lyly’s play Campaspe
The Blackfriars was also a place for the nobles- many noble residences were built on the rounds, including of the French ambassador, and of Henry Brooke, Lord Cobham. It was also a resort of sorts, where the nobility went to play tennis and the leisure in the many gardens.
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7. The site of the Blackfriars playhouse
View of London from Southwark
Engraving by Wenceslaus Hollar,
Arrow showing the site of the Blackfriars playhouse
There are 2 sites and each is located next to the other
The site of the Blackfriars playhouse
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8. James Burbage and the Second Blackfriars
In 1596, James Burbage purchased this building and converted some rooms to become a larger playing space i.e. second Blackfriars theatre.
He turned the rooms into an indoor or “private” playhouse.
The city officials were against the theatre, therefore the Chamberlain/King’s men were unable to perform in the Blackfriars due to protest from local residents.
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9. John Fletcher George Chapman The Knight of the Burning Pestle
Burbage used the theatre for a commercial enterprise with a group called the Children of the Chapel, which combined the Choristers of the chapel with other boys, many taken up from local grammar school to provide entertainment for the Queen While it housed this company, Blackfriars was the site of an explosion of innovative drama and staging The Blackfriars company produced plays by a number of the most talented young dramatist of Jacobean literature, among them Thomas Middleton, Ben Jonson, George Chapman, and John Marston. Blackfriars premiered plays by Francis Beaumont (The Knight of the Burning Pestle) and John Fletcher (The Faithful Shepherdess). The new plays by all these playwrights deliberately pushed the accepted boundaries of personal and social satire, violence on stage, and of sexual frankness. These plays appear to have attracted members of a higher social class, and the admission price (sixpence for a cheap seat).
The Knight of the Burning Pestle
John Fletcher
George Chapman
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10. The Tempest at Blackfriars as imagined by Walter C
The Tempest at Blackfriars as imagined by Walter C. Hodges (Courtesy of Cambridge University Press)
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11. By 1608, the King’s Men were able to use the theatre for performances
By 1608, the King’s Men were able to use the theatre for performances. They consisted of the Burbage brothers, Shakespeare, John Heminge and Henry Condell (the two actors who produced the First Folio), William Sly and Thomas Evans, who are all members of the King’s Men.
Blackfriars was still able to present various special effect due to its trap doors (actors come out from below stage) and wires and belts to hang props and lower actors (actors playing angels, for example). It consisted of 700 sitting.
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12. Innovations in the Blackfriars playhouse
The Blackfriars playhouse was also the source of other innovations which would profoundly change the nature of English commercial theatrical enterprises to rely on artificial lighting, and it featured music between acts.
This large space, perhaps 100 feet (30 m) long and 50 wide (30 by 15 metres), with high ceilings allowed Burbage to construct two galleries, substantially increasing potential attendance.
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13. Trap door
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14. Torch as artificial lighting
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15. The King’s Men performed there without interruption until the closing of the theatres with the English Civil War in The Blackfriars playhouse fell into disrepair, and was demolished on 6th of August, 1655.
Model of second Blackfriars Theatre
at the Shakespeare’s Globe Museum.
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16. A replica of the playhouse
Blackfriars Shakespearean playhouse, Staunton, Virginia
A replica of the playhouse
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17. Known Owners of the Blackfriars
Sir William Moore ? - 04/02/1596
James Burbage 04/02/ /1597
Richard Burbage 04/ /03/1619
Winifred Burbage 13/03/
Richard Robinson ?
William Burbage
Known Owners of the Blackfriars
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