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Because it was approximately circular being made of 20 short sides made of wood.

For some obscure reason, actors often pronounce the "O" as if it were "Oh". But clearly Shakespeare intended the pronunciation to be "nought": making a rhyming couplet with "Agincourt". This gives us a typical Shakespearian pun. The theatre is a wooden circle and also the figure naught. He's emphasising that compared to reality, a play is worth nothing.

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11y ago
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10y ago

Because the building was circular and made of wood. Actually the sides were not truly circular but a series of many straight lengths which gave the impression of being circular.
The theaters were circular and open on the top, so they were shaped like an "O". They were designed this way because they had to use natural light to put on a play. There was no way to light an entire theater at night for a performance. They could light small venues with candles and torches, but those don't give off enough light for a building the size of a theater.

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12y ago

It refers to the shape of the outdoor theatres of the time: a ring of galleries with a space in the centre open to the sky. They looked a bit like the letter "O". The common idea that it refers to the Globe Theatre is in error; the expression is from the Prologue of Shakespeare's play Henry V, which was written before the Globe was even built. When the play was first performed, the "wooden O" in question was The Curtain Theatre.

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12y ago

Theatres in London were only called a "wooden o" once, by Shakespeare, in the Prologue to his play Henry V. He was talking about the theatre in which the play was being performed, which was the First Globe. This theatre was built on a wooden frame, with lath and plaster, giving it that Tudor framed look, with a thatched roof. It contained a roofed stage surrounded by a circle of galleries, also roofed. The stage thrust into a central unroofed courtyard. Because it was round and hollow it looked a bit like the letter "o".

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13y ago

"This wooden O" is not a nickname but a quotation from the Prologue to Henry V: "may we cram within this wooden O the very casques which did affright the air at Agincourt?" He is probably talking about the Globe Theatre here which was built as a twenty-sided polygon with a roof around the galleries on the outside and no roof over the courtyard in the middle. From above, it would look sort of like the letter "O"

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12y ago

As it was a theatre in-the-round and made of timber

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11y ago
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13y ago

Shakespeare refers to "this wooden O" in the prologue to Henry V.

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Q: What does the wooden O in Shakespeare's plays refers to?
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