ABSTRACT
This chapter gives students insight in the important societal role of staging in the early modern period. Theatre was not only a provider of entertainment but also an effective vehicle to reflect the preoccupations of the time and to ventilate ideological messages. It was the window to the world. In presenting three related topics, this chapter illustrates the embeddedness of staging in the early modern world: the power of staging; the practice of staging; and the metaphorical use of staging, such as in the famous “All the world’s a stage”.
Both in the introduction and in the three parts of the essay, the discussed phenomena are treated as European, since the authors show how theatre cultures and practices in several European countries influenced each other. In retrospect, the chapter also makes clear how today’s power division in Europe influences the canonization of certain theatre authors in a way that does not correspond with their importance in their own time – and the other way around.
