ABSTRACT
Shakespeare was writing for a theatrical art form very different from the kinds of screen drama familiar to us today. His audiences did not ‘suspend their disbelief’ and imagine they really were seeing a Danish Prince seeking revenge for his father’s death, or witnessing Julius Caesar being murdered before their eyes. There was little that could be called ‘realistic’ in the modern sense about the early modern stage’s presentation of the world: in fact it never really pretended it was anything but pretence. This did nothing to dim its power as drama, however.
