ABSTRACT
The inspiration for the Rose Theatre, Kingston, which opened in 2008, was Philip Henslowe’s Bankside Rose of 1587. Whilst other new theatre spaces, responding imaginatively to ideas and descriptions of theatres of the past, have emerged during the past four decades, Kingston’s Rose is unashamedly a modern theatre, but one based directly on the archaeology revealed in 1989. This chapter considers the nature of some of these new spaces derived from historically distant theatre buildings, with special reference to the Rose Theatre, Kingston. It reflects on the discovery of a particular relationship between players and playgoers and on the potential of an intimate space to portray the epic moments in drama. Audience and actors share the space, which enables a distinctive communication between them.
