Dec 18, 2009

The Oxford Companion to Shakespeare | ‘above’

‘above’.
About half of Shakespeare's plays need an elevated playing space which is often signalled by a stage direction of the kind ‘enter above’, and most of these use this location just once or twice. An actor appearing ‘above’ is usually to be thought of as appearing at a window, or upon the walls of a castle or fortified town. Contemporary accounts and drawings (most clearly the de Witt drawing of the Swan) indicate a balcony set in the back wall of the stage which could be used as a spectating position but also would be ideal to provide the occasional ‘above’ acting space.

Gabriel Egan

Bibliography

Hosley, Richard, ‘The Gallery over the Stage in the Public Playhouse of Shakespeare's Time’, Shakespeare Quarterly, 8 (1957)

[The entire page is 134 words long]

The Oxford Companion to Shakespeare | ‘above’

Bibliography

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