Ep 50 Globe v Blackfriars with Sarah Dustagheer

When William Shakespeare was writing The Tempest was he considering the light bouncing off the walls of his playhouse? When he directed Feste to be fond of singing in Twelfth Night, did Shakespeare know the people in the back would be able to hear him?

We don't often think about Shakespeare's plays in context of where they were originally performed, but this week our guest Sarah Dustagheer has written an entire book exploring that very question. Turns out, many of Shakespeare's lines were written for the location where they were first to be performed. Sarah is a Senior Lecturer in Early Modern Literature at The University of Kent, and author of her latest book, Shakespeare's Playhouses: Repertory and Theatre Space at the Globe and the Blackfriars, 1599-1613