ABSTRACT
Generalisations about audience responses to plays are neither sensible nor possible. But it is possible to open a discussion of the popular audience in the open air theatres by taking note that this was a theatre of conventions. Meaningful elements in the performance which contributed to the relationship included the daylight, the fact that audience and players were all equally visible to one another, creating a democratic feel to proceedings which few theatres before or since have achieved; and the lack of illusion, which is not the same as the suspension of disbelief. Playgoing was citational. But part of the experience of playgoing was what else went on in the auditorium during the performance, which of course ran without an interval. Thomas Dekker is also capable, however, of noticing the ‘rare silence’ among the spectators at a telling passage in a play, after which they will ‘clap their brawny hands’.
