The Rose (theatre)

"Rose Theater" redirects here. For other venues, see Rose Theatre.
1593 map showing The Rose in relation to the Bear Garden on Bankside. Enlarge
The Rose is labelled in the bottom centre this London street map. Enlarge

The Rose was an Elizabethan theatre. It was the fourth of the public theatres to be built, after The Theatre (1576), the Curtain (1577), and the theatre at Newington Butts (c. 1580?) – and the first of several playhouses to be situated in Bankside, Southwark, in a liberty outside the jurisdiction of the City of London's civic authorities.

History

The Rose was built in 1587 by Philip Henslowe and by a grocer named John Cholmley. It was the first purpose-built playhouse to ever stage a production of any of Shakespeare's plays. The theatre was built on a messuage called the "Little Rose," which Henslowe had leased from the parish of St. Mildred in 1585. It contained substantial rose gardens and two buildings; Cholmley used one as a storehouse, while Henslowe appears to have leased the other as a brothel. The new building was of timber, with a lath and plaster exterior and thatch roof. In shape it was a fourteen-sided polygon, of about 72 feet (22 m) in external diameter.[1] The inner space was also a fourteen-sided polygon, about 47 feet (14 m) wide. Modern calculations show that the dimensions and fourteen-sided layout were dictated by the use of the standard 16th-century measure of one rod as a base and the carpenter's "rule of thumb" method of dividing a circle into seven equal parts, subdivided.[1]

City records indicate that it was in use by late 1587; however, it is not mentioned in Henslowe's accounts between its construction and 1592, and it is possible that he leased it to an acting company with which he was not otherwise concerned. In 1592 Edward Alleyn was acting with a combination of personnel from Lord Strange's Men and the Admiral's Men; this group moved into the Rose in February 1592. Henslowe enlarged the theatre for the new troupe, moving the stage further back (six feet six inches, or two metres) to make room for perhaps 500 extra spectators. The original Rose was smaller than other theatres, only about two-thirds the size of the original Theatre built eleven years earlier, and its stage was also unusually small; the enlargement addressed both matters. Henslowe paid all the costs himself, indicating that Cholmley was no longer involved – either deceased or bought out. The work was done by the builder John Grigg. The renovation gave the theatre, formerly a regular polygon (with 14 sides), a distorted egg shape, a "bulging tulip" or "distorted ovoid" floor plan. Most people during the Shakespearian times were not very fond of the Rose Theatre.[2]

The 1592–4 period was difficult for the acting companies of London; a severe outbreak of bubonic plague meant that the London theatres were closed almost continuously from June 1592 to May 1594.[3] The companies were forced to tour to survive, and some, like Pembroke's Men, fell on hard times. By the summer of 1594 the plague had abated, and the companies re-organized themselves, principally into the Lord Chamberlain's Men and the Admiral's Men. The latter troupe, still led by Alleyn, resumed residence at the Rose.

The Rose appears to have differed from other theatres of the era in its ability to stage large scenes on two levels. It is thought that all Elizabethan theatres had a limited capability to stage scenes "aloft," on an upper level at the back of the stage – as with Juliet at her window in Romeo and Juliet, II.ii. A minority of Elizabethan plays, however, call for larger assemblies of actors on the higher second level – as with the Roman Senators looking down upon Titus in the opening scene of Titus Andronicus. An unusual concentration of plays with the latter sort of staging requirement can be associated with the Rose, indicating that the Rose had an enhanced capacity for this particularity of stagecraft.[4]

The Rose was home to the Admiral's Men for several years. When the Lord Chamberlain's Men built the Globe Theatre on the Bankside in 1599, however, the Rose was put into a difficult position. Prompted by complaints from city officials, the Privy Council decreed in June 1600 that only two theatres would be allowed for stage plays: The Globe Theatre in Bankside, and the Fortune Theatre in Middlesex – specifically, Shoreditch. Henslowe and Alleyn had already built the Fortune, apparently to fill the vacuum created when the Chamberlain's Men left Shoreditch. The Rose was used briefly by Worcester's Men in 1602 and 1603; when the lease ran out on The Rose in 1605 it was abandoned. The playhouse may have been pulled down as early as 1606.

Excavation

The position of the foundations was outlined for display to the public in 1999[5]

In 1989, the remains of the Rose were threatened with destruction by building development, A campaign to save the site was launched by several well-known theatrical figures, including Peggy Ashcroft and Laurence Olivier. It was eventually decided to suspend the proposed building over the top of the theatre's remains, leaving them conserved beneath, resulting in what has been called "one of the weirdest sights in London".[6] A blue plaque at 56 Park Street marks the spot.[7]

The handling of the Rose Theatre by government, archaeologists [8] and the developer provided impetus for the legitimisation of archaeology in the development process and led the Conservative government of Margaret Thatcher to introduce PPG 16 in an attempt to manage archaeology in the face of development threat.

When the Museum of London carried out the excavation work, the staff found many objects which are now stored in the museum itself. Portions of the theatre's foundations, under the ingressi (wooden stairs leading to the galleries), were littered with fruit seeds and hazelnut shells; it has been claimed that hazelnuts were the popcorn of English Renaissance drama.[9] When combined with cinder and earth, they provided a tough floor surface—"so tough, indeed, that 400 years later archaeologists had to take a pick axe to it to penetrate it".[10] Initially the floor of the yard (including the area beneath the raised wooden stage) had a screeded mortar surface but when the building was extended a compacted layer of silt, ash and clinker, mixed with hazelnut shells, was used. The nutshells were brought to the site from a nearby soapworks, where the nuts were crushed for their oil, rather than evidence of litter left by the audience.[11]

The Rose today

In 1999, the site was re-opened to the public, underneath the new development. Work continues to excavate this historic site further and to secure its future. The foundations of the Rose are covered in a few inches of water to keep the ground from developing major cracks. In 2007 part of The Rose was opened as a performance space with actors performing around the narrow perimeter of the site.[12]

Modern replica

A replica of The Rose Theatre was featured in the film Shakespeare in Love and after 10 years in storage was donated by Dame Judi Dench to the British Shakespeare Company, who were planning to rebuild it in the north of England, although the plans have not progressed any further since they were announced in 2009.[13][14]

References

  1. 1 2 Greenfield, Jon; Gurr, Andrew (2004). "The Rose Theatre, London: the state of knowledge and what we still need to know" (PDF). Antiquity (York, England: Department of Archaeology, University of York) 78 (300): 330–340. ISSN 0003-598X.
  2. ↑ Andrew Gurr, The Shakespearean Stage 1574–1642, third edition, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1992; pp. 38 and 123-31.
  3. ↑ Since plague outbreaks tended to taper off in winter, The Rose was open for playing in both Januaries, 1593 and 1594, with a few days in late December and early February too. Alleyn's troupe played the Rose in January '93, but was touring beyond London in the winter of '93–'94, when Henslowe had Sussex's Men perform in the theatre.
  4. ↑ Scott McMillin, The Elizabethan Stage and "The Book of Sir Thomas More," Ithaca, N.Y., Cornell University Press, 1987; pp. 113–33.
  5. ↑ Niesewand, Nonie (12 April 1999). "The new Rose blooms at last Marlowe and Shakespeare's original Elizabethan playhouse has been given a hi-tech restoration". The Independent. p. 10.
  6. ↑ Edward Chaney, "Sam Wanamaker's Global Legacy", Salisbury Review, June 1995, pp. 38–40.
  7. ↑ "Blue Plaque for the Rose Theatre". London Borough of Southwark. 2005. Archived from the original on 16 June 2008. Retrieved 5 March 2009.
  8. ↑ Bar-Hillel, Mira (25 January 1990). "EH Wins The Battle For Historic London. Chartered Surveyor Weekly" (PDF). Hobley's Heroes: DUA Newsletter, February 1990. Retrieved 31 January 2016.
  9. ↑ Gurr, p. 131.
  10. ↑ Rutter, Carol Chillington, Documents of the Rose Playhouse, 2nd. ed. (Manchester University Press, 1999), p. xiii
  11. ↑ Bowsher, Julian; Miller, Pat (2010). The Rose and the Globe—playhouses of Shakespeare's Bankside, Southwark. London: Museum of London. pp. 45–48; 61. ISBN 978-1-901992-85-4.
  12. ↑ http://www.fringereport.com/07london.php#rosetheatrelaunch October 2007, Rose Theatre launch, Fringe Report
  13. ↑ Williamson, Robert J. "Shakespeare's Rose Theatre". Leeds, England: British Shakespeare Company. Retrieved 16 October 2009.
  14. ↑ Chester's Rose Theatre bid wilts on the stem, Chester Chronicle, 12 August 2010

External links

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Coordinates: 51°30′26″N 0°05′44″W / 51.5072°N 0.09547°W / 51.5072; -0.09547

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