Kingdom for a Stage: Magicians and Aristocrats in the Elizabethan Theatre - Hardcover

This book describes the role of Elizabeth I, the aristocratic patrons of the players' companies and the Elizabethan magus John Dee in the concept and design of the Elizabethan playhouse. The author has analysed drawings and archaeological materials which throw a completely new light on the concepts underlying the design of the theatres of Elizabeth London, relating Renaissance concepts of proportion and the mystery of creation to the world of aristocratic patronage. Her research has attracted powerful support from the Museum of London and the Science Museum, as well as from Mark Rylance, director of the Bankside Globe, and is certain to cause a stir in the Shakespearean world. The book offers a wide-ranging view of the nature of the Elizabethan theatre and its relationship to the Elizabethan world picture. As such it goes beyond anything currently available on the subject and will appeal to all those interested in Elizabethan theatre as historians, students of Shakespeare or students of theatre history. The debate about the site and size of e.g. the original Globe is constantly fuelled by new discoveries and speculations. Joy Hancox's research is receiving ever-growing support and in one way or another is going to influence the way people think about Shakespeare's theatre in the future.

Joy Hancox is the author of The Byrom Papers (Jonathan Cape, hb 1992; pb 1997), where she first proposed an interpretation of Elizabethan theatres based on magical and hermetic concepts.