What caused all the theaters to close during 1593 and 1594 when William Shakespeare was alive?

Answer 1

A number of factors caused theatre closures:

1. Disease, primarily plague. When there was an outbreak of plague, it was feared that the crowded theatres would spread the disease. Minor closures occured in 1596 and 1606 but there was a terrible long closure in 1593 and 1594 which put a lot of theatrical companies out of business.

2. Political Incorrectness. The play The Isle of Dogs was terribly offensive to the Queen and council and was suppressed with vigour. This included the closing of the Swan Theatre, which never really recovered.

3. Puritan hostility. This caused all of the theatres in London to be closed from 1642 to 1660 while the puritans were in power.

Answer 2

I think one reason was because the directors would sneak women into roles. At the time, woman were not allowed to act. Only boy and men.

There is only one documented case of a woman being found on the stage of a theatre at the time: Mary Frith, noted transvestite, apparently got on the stage of the Fortune Theatre and sang a song, possibly in conjunction with the play The Roaring Girl, which was about her life. There were minimal consequences for Frith and none for the Fortune.

The Swan Theatre was closed and its owner jailed for putting on the play "Isle of Dogs" which was a little too critical of the government.

The most common reason for closing the theatres was for health reasons. During plague outbreaks, it was thought that the spread of the disease could be controlled if people were not packed like sardines into theatres.

Answer 3

At no time has there ever been an edict that theatres where Shakespeare's plays are performed should be closed. There have been edicts that theatres in general be closed from time to time, but these affected all theatres, no matter whose plays were being performed. Shakespeare was only one of hundreds of playwrights working at the time, many of whom are not now known by name.

The two theatre closures which have significance to the study of Shakespeare are:

1. Local edicts in the City of London and area closing theatres in the boroughs and city during outbreaks of plague, especially in 1593-4 and 1596. During such periods city acting companies went on tour which was much less lucrative than playing near the city.

2. A general edict forbidding the acting of plays of any kind in England which forced the closure of most of the playhouses, from 1642 to 1660.

Answer 4

It was primarily the London stage closures which affected Shakespeare during 1593-4. These were initially closed by the city authorities during June 1592 in response to worker riots. Though they re-opened briefly, they were soon shut again - for most of the period to May 1594 - due to protracted outbreaks of the Plague.

Answer 5

There were periodic outbreaks of plague (pneumonic plague by this time, not bubonic) which caused theatres to be closed as a health measure. A particularly long such closure took place in 1593-4.

Answer 6

They weren't. They were being built. The Theatre (built 1576) was torn down because the lease had expired and the owners couldn't negotiate a new one. They used the materials from the Theatre to build the Globe. All in all 13 theatres were built in London during Shakespeare's lifetime: The Theatre (1576, dismantled 1599), Newington Butts (1576), The Curtain (1577), The Rose (1587, renovated 1592 and abandoned 1605), The Swan (1595), The Globe (1599; burned 1613 and rebuilt 1614), The Fortune (1600, burned 1621, rebuilt 1623), The Boar's Head (1600), The Red Bull (1604) and The Hope (1614) were all outdoor theatres which could seat thousands. St Paul's (1576), Blackfriars (1576 and again in 1596) and The Cockpit (1616) were smaller and more exclusive (and expensive) indoor theatres. Queen Anne's Men (a rival company to Shakespeare's) caused a riot by moving from The Red Bull to the more expensive Cockpit.

Theatre fires, plague (an outbreak in 1592 closed the theatres for two years), and open hostility from the Lord Mayor (an attempt to have the theatres closed in 1584 failed) did not stop the vibrant theatrical scene of this time. Indeed, the theatres were only closed down when a group of fundamentalist religious fanatics took over the government. But that was not in Shakespeare's era, it was a quarter of a century after his death.

Answer 7

Health reasons. The civic authorities felt that theatres helped spread the plague and so had the theatres closed during outbreaks of the plague. (For some reason they did not close churches) A particularly nasty outbreak in 1593-4 caused a long closure and the bankruptcy of a number of playing companies. There was another outbreak in 1596. When the theatres closed down, the acting companies often went on a tour of country towns which is why Shakespeare was in Kent when his son Hamnet died.

Answer 8

The plauge x D