ABSTRACT
There are no records of specific performances of The Opportunity by Queen Henrietta’s Men. It is possible that the play was presented at court, since the company performed there several times a year, including eight times in 1634 and nine times in 1635. The little that is definitely known about the Werburgh Street theater repertory, however, offers nothing to lend support to the speculation that it included The Opportunity. None of the other Shirley plays known or thought to have been staged in Dublin had been previously performed in London; instead, Shirley probably wrote most of these plays while he resided in Dublin. All in all, while it is not impossible that the Dublin imprint of The Opportunity represents a performance of the play there, no evidence points to one. The Red Bull was the site of several surreptitious play performances throughout the Commonwealth period.
