Early Modern Performance Beyond the Public Stage

Extra-Theatrical Forms and Spaces

By: Amrita Sen (Editor), Jennifer Linhart Wood (Editor)

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eBook | 18 September 2025

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Early Modern Performance Beyond the Public Stage is the first major work to explore and analyse the popular 'extra-theatrical' performances in late medieval and Renaissance England. This wider heterogeneous category of early modern performance included puppetry, fireworks shows, rope dancing, minstrelsy, performing animals, games, civic drama, court masques, university drama, morris dances, and ceremonial rituals, all taking place in a variety of venues.

The volume reveals how these extra-theatrical productions shaped urban and rural life and conveyed a sense of spectacular excess, of exceeding traditional genres, conventional modes of performance and the typical bounds of theatrical space. The spaces where medieval and early modern drama flourished include pageant carts, convents, private homes, universities, waterways, and the streets of both urban and rural communities. Much like public theatres, these performance spaces also played a pivotal role in articulating individual, communal, and national aspirations. Spanning the medieval period to the late 17th century, this volume engages with questions of spatiality, gender, religion, transcontinental exchanges, and colonialism, presenting the latest research from scholars across the globe.