Land/Scape/Theater Book

This is really an academic study of the London theater in Shakespeare's era and parts of it are absolutely fascinating, such as the detail on the physical structure of the venues, and what these structures meant to the plays and people that used them. Also interesting to see the development of the audiences in different venues, that some seemed more "popular" and others more exclusive (a reality that modern theater managers deal with today in their choices of repertory, ticket prices etc.). And while it may not be a weakness of the book so much as the historiography, the Appendix that lists the names of every specific person that the historical record indicates attended the London theater in the period 1567-1642 comes up with only 200 names and something like a 1/4 to 1/3 are people who were arrested for "an affray" or fighting. Of course this does not mean that 1/4 to 1/3 of playgoers were the equivalent of soccer hooligans looking for a fight on any occasion, it indicates that we have a dire paucity of records of who attended the theater (the prevalence of criminal behaviour in the lists indicates the various court procedures where these complaints were heard, and therefore, recorded). Realizing this weakness, it is difficult to have faith in even the wisest analysis of the data. However, Andrew Gurr is very direct about what is fact and what is surmise and overall this book provides great insight into how plays were performed, where, and for whom.