Why wasn’t Shakespeare’s plays popular at the time?
Reference:
1) The Shakespeare Library, Shakespeare Theatre, author Wendy Greenhill and published by Heinemann library in 1995.
2) Snapping-turtle guides, Shakespeare, published in 2003.
3) Website- http://www2.cedarcrest.edu/academic/eng/lfletcher/henry4/papers/mthomas.htm
The local London audiences would go to view these plays ever Monday to Saturday afternoon. The plays performed were considered very popular and enjoyable in which a large audience could fill up to 3000 people ranging for rich to poor. This piece of information supports that Shakespeare’s plays were indeed very popular but only within the local London audience not commercially.
When we look at the location of the shakespearian theatres they were positioned alongside the Thames on the southbank not actually in London. London officials at the time said that Shakespeare’s plays breached religious rights and contained many acts of extreme violence which the did not want to be shown in their city. The term commercial failure means the money invested into producing and showing his plays the profit didn’t cover the costs. Shakespearians plays were produced in the Elizabethan era meaning men dominated the audience being as women would normally stay at home. Their are a couple of reasons why Shakespeare work wasnt a commercial success in which I would like to talk about. The first reason I would like to look at us publicity. Communications across the world wasn’t as strong as they are today with the increasing technology use and the access to be able to travel anywhere in the world therefore I think the plays didn’t get the right amount of publicity globslly. When we think of Shakespeare we have to remembee that his plays were proformances/productions shown in his theatres. This information is quite important taking in regard you could only view his work if you went to one of the theatre that were in london. If we look at the use of less technology in the Elizabethan era the work wasn’t able to be filmed and then shown on international tv because that was also unavailable to Shakespeared and society. Another reason would be that his plays were very graphic but also complex and typically fitted in with the london way of life. The language and story’s seem to attract and entertain british people which I think it wouldn’t do the same for people abroad due to culture differences. My final reason would be that the language is in English and is complex it couldn’t be translated into other languages for people to understand because the work wouldn’t have the same effect. I also think people underestimated Shakespeare at the time and us only looking back at his plays can understand how talented and special he was.
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