Ebook: Shakespeare in the Theatre: The King’s Men

Created when James I granted royal patronage to the former Chamberlain’s Men in 1603, the King’s Men was the first playing company to exercise a transformative influence on Shakespeare’s plays. Shakespeare was at the heart of its activities for nearly four decades, as player, playwright and theatrical commodity, and these interconnecting versions of ‘Shakespeare’ are the subject of Shakespeare in the Theatre: The King’s Men. The book draws on theatre history, performance studies and cultural history in order to reappraise the company as theatre makers in their own right. It analyses in detail the performance practices, cultural contexts and political pressures that helped to shape and reshape Shakespeare’s plays between 1603 and 1660. Exploring questions of authority, service, commodity and collaboration that were crucial to the company’s practices, it presents case-studies of the early performance histories of some of the most enduringly popular plays – Othello, Pericles, The Tempest, The Winter’s Tale, Richard II and Henry VIII – alongside a detailed reappraisal of the repertory of the company and the place of Shakespeare’s plays within it.