Persecution, Plague, And Fire: Fugitive Histories Of The Stage In Early Modern England University Press Scholarship Online

The theater of early modern England was a disastrous affair. The scant record of its performance demonstrates as much, for what we tend to remember today of the Shakespearean stage and its history are landmark moments of dissolution: the burning down of the Globe, the forced closure of playhouses during outbreaks of the plague, and the abolition of the theater by its Cromwellian opponents. __Persecution, Plague, and Fire__ is a study of these catastrophes and the theory of performance they convey. Ellen MacKay argues that the various disasters that afflicted the English theater during its golden age were no accident but the promised end of a practice built on disappearance and erasure—a kind of fatal performance that left nothing behind but its self-effacing poetics. Bringing together dramatic theory, performance studies, and theatrical, religious, and cultural history, MacKay reveals the period’s radical take on the history and the future of the stage to show just how critical the relation was between early modern English theater and its public. The Theatre Of Early Modern England Was A Disastrous Affair. What We Tend To Remember Of The Shakespearean Stage And Its History Are Landmark Moments Of Dissolution. This Title Is A Study Of These Catastrophes And The Theory Of Performance They Convey. Introduction: The Theater As A Loaded Gun -- The Hurt That Comes Of Fooling -- Aeschylus's Ballistic Stage -- The Ruins Of Rome -- The Theater As Persecution -- Tragedy's Guilty Creatures -- England's Conscience-catching Theater -- Rome's Fatal Charades -- Tyrannical Drama -- The Dream Of Theatrical Justice -- Hamlet's Show Trial -- The King's Immunity -- The Widow's Foregone Confession -- Gertrude's Uncaught Conscience -- Orestes Redux -- The End Of Rome -- The Fall Of The Unified Church -- The Theater As Infection -- The Toxic Middle Age -- The Theater And The Plague -- The Sure Disease Of Uncertaine Causes -- The Life Of Performance -- Not Quite Nothing -- Stigmatical Drama -- Some Symptoms Of The Medieval Stage -- It Is Not Words That Shakes Me Thus -- The Plague In Art -- Look There, Look There! -- The Apocalypse To Come -- The Theater As Conflagration -- The Eschatology Of The Tudor Stage -- The Theater's Propensity For Burning -- Raising The Cry Of Sodom -- Wielding The Crime Of Sodom -- Sodomy's False Origins -- Sodomitical Drama -- The Sought Apocalypse -- Remembering Lot's Wife -- The Stage's Hymeneal Contract -- The Impossible History Of Theater Fires -- The Mare Mortuum's Infinite Stage -- Afterword: On The Uncertainty Of What Comes After. Ellen Mackay. Includes Bibliographical References And Index. Introduction: The Theater as a Loaded Gun The Hurt That Comes of Fooling Aeschylus’s Ballistic Stage PART I: THE RUINS OF ROME 1. The Theater as Persecution Tragedy’s Guilty Creatures England’s Conscience-Catching Theater Rome’s Fatal Charades 2. Tyrannical Drama The Dream of Theatrical Justice Hamlet’s Show Trial The King’s Immunity The Widow’s Foregone Confession Gertrude’s Uncaught Conscience Orestes Redux The End of Rome PART II: THE FALL OF THE UNIFIED CHURCH 3. The Theater as Infection The Toxic Middle Age “The Theater and the Plague” “The Sure Disease of Uncertaine Causes” The Life of Performance Not Quite Nothing 4. Stigmatical Drama Some Symptoms of the Medieval Stage “It is not words that shakes me thus” The Plague in Art “Look there, look there!” PART III: THE APOCALYPSE TO COME 5. The Theater as Conflagration The Eschatology of the Tudor Stage The Theater’s Propensity for Burning Raising the “Cry of Sodom” Wielding the Crime of Sodom Sodomy’s False Origins 6. Sodomitical Drama The Sought Apocalypse Remembering Lot’s Wife The Stage’s Hymeneal Contract The Impossible History of Theater Fires The Mare Mortuum’s Infinite Stage Afterword: On the Uncertainty of What Comes After Bibliography Index Presents a study of playhouse catastrophes and the theory of performance they convey. Bringing together dramatic theory,theatrical, religious, and cultural history, this title reveals the period's radical take on the history and the future of the stage to show just how critical the relation was between early modern English theater and its public.