ABSTRACT
A Game at Chess was probably the last time a significantly innovative play would be premiered at one of London’s open air playhouses: after this, theatrical originality was found more and more in the private, indoor theatres. The first of these, and the dominant indoor theatre right through to 1642, was the Blackfriars, in the fashionable area just within the city walls. James Burbage had purchased this building for £600 as long ago as 1596, but he was unable to use the premises because leading residents of the neighbourhood petitioned the Privy Council against it. For a while, Burbage let the new space to the Children of the Chapel Royal. But in 1608, with a little help perhaps from suitable bribes, the King’s Men took it over.
