A Short History of Western Performance Space

David Wiles considers theatrical activity "happening" in churches, streets, pubs and galleries, as well as in buildings explicitly designed to be "theaters," in this historical account. Surveying performance space usage within the traditions of Western Europe, Wiles traces a diverse set of continuities, from Greece and Rome to the present, including many areas not included in standard accounts of theater history.

This innovative book provides a historical account of performance space within the theatrical traditions of western Europe. David Wiles takes a broad-based view of theatrical activity as something that occurs in churches, streets, pubs and galleries as much as in buildings explicitly designed to be 'theatres'. He traces a diverse set of continuities from Greece and Rome to the present, including many areas that do not figure in standard accounts of theatre history. Drawing on the cultural geography of Henri Lefebvre, the book identifies theatrical performances as spatial practices characteristic of particular social structures. It is not a history of contexts for dramatic literature, but the history of an activity rooted in bodies and environments. Wiles uses this historical material to address a pressing concern of the present: is theatre better performed in modern architect-designed, apparently neutral empty spaces, or characterful 'found' spaces?

Acknowledgements; List of illustrations; 1. Introduction; 2. Sacred space; 3. Processional space; 4. Public space; 5. Sympotic space; 6. The cosmic circle; 7. The cave; 8. The empty space; Select bibliography; Index.

This innovative book provides a historical account of performance space within the theatrical traditions of western Europe. David Wiles takes a broad-based view of theatrical activity as something that occurs in churches, streets, pubs and galleries as much as in buildings explicitly designed to be 'theatres'.

David Wiles is Professor of Theatre at Royal Holloway University of London. His previous publications have mainly been in the field of Elizabethan and Greek theatre, including Shakespeare's Clown: Actor and Text in the Elizabethan Playhouse (Cambridge, 1987) and Greek Theatre Performance (Cambridge, 2000). This is his seventh book.