This Wide and Universal Theater

ManyreadersfirstencounterShakespeare'splaysinabookratherthanatheater.YetShakespearewasthroughandthroughamanofthestage.SowhatdowelosewhenweleaveShakespearethepractitionerbehind,andwhatdowelearnwhenwethinkabouthisplaysasdramastobeperformed?DavidBevingtonanswersthesequestionswith"ThisWideandUniversalTheater",whichexploreshowShakespeare'splayswereproducedbothinhisowntimeandinsucceedingcenturies.Makinguseofhistoricaldocumentsandtheplayscriptsthemselves,BevingtonbringsShakespeare'soriginalstagingstolife.HeexplainshowtheElizabethanplayhouseconveyedasenseofplaceusingminimalscenery,fromtheForestofArdenin"AsYouLikeIt"tothetavernin"HenryIV,PartI".MovingbeyondShakespeare'slifetime,Bevingtonshowstheprodigiouslengthstowhicheighteenth-andnineteenth-centurycompanieswenttoproducespectaculareffects,fromflyingwitchesin"Macbeth"toterrifyingstormspunctuating"KingLear".Tobringthebookintothepresent,Bevingtonconsidersrecentproductionsonbothstageandscreen,whencharacterandlanguagehavetakenprecedenceoverspectacle.ThisvolumebringsalifetimeofstudytobearonaremarkablyunderappreciatedaspectofShakespeare'sart.