ABSTRACT
Rylance wanted the reconstructed theatre building, and the audiences that came to it, to play a primary role in ‘directing’ the meanings that were produced there. The Shakespeare productions that he led and performed at Shakespeare’s Globe ranged from the Henry V in the theatre’s opening season, produced according to founder Sam Wanamaker’s desire for one production per season to follow historically researched early modern theatre practices, to Rylance’s last appearance there, a three-man Tempest haunted by three female ‘fates’ in contemporary dress. The original practices remit was criticised by some for producing too broad and populist a ‘heritage’ Shakespeare. Rylance’s approach to the reconstruction of Shakespeare’s theatre has seemed to some pragmatic and materialist, to others archaic and esoteric. However, his vision for the theatre was primarily that it should be an experiment in historically
researched theatre practice, and I am going to argue that the Globe under Rylance staked out new ground for British Shakespeare production in terms of the audience’s role in the production of meaning.
