Theatre in the old days was used as a main media outlet by writers, actors, and directors. In that time anything could be said on stage about politics and the current monarchs. In the mid 1500’s Queen Elizabeth I banned the discussion of current events in plays. Shakespeare’s “Henry” plays were used to disguise talk of current events by using old monarchies with similar situations to what was currently happening. Luckily, Shakespeare was clever enough in his writing to get away with indirectly speaking against the current government.
In the 1590’s Queen Elizabeth I was 60 years old and without child. Everyone was concerned about who the next monarch would be, so she declared that it was treason for anyone to ask who the next King or Queen would be. Just before Queen Elizabeth I died a man wrote and produced a play named Richard II, which discussed a monarch who stepped aside to allow a more capable leader to take over. When the government found out about this the creator of this play was immediately imprisoned. This example shows that reporting the truth through media in this time period was a very risky business.
The photo above was taken during a performance of Macbeth at the Globe Theatre in London.
Information taken from a lecture by actor, Philip Bird
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