ABSTRACT

This chapter argues that “Original-Practice” stagings of early modern drama produce heightened audience response and engagement through a sense of interconnectedness between playgoers and performers that echoes Renaissance notions of a “porous and volatile” humoral body. Drawing on recent advances in neuroscience, the author asserts that chemosensory signals and F4 bimodal neurons enable the transmission of affect via smell and touch. Performers thereby affect audience members sitting or standing in close proximity to the stage. The process of emotional contagion (a timeless notion) then allows these spectators to pass these received affects to fellow playgoers situated further from the stage.