Lighting a reconstruction of a Jacobean indoor theatre: the new Sam Wanamaker Playhouse at Shakespeare’s Globe in London
Submitting Institution
University of BristolUnit of Assessment
Music, Drama, Dance and Performing ArtsSummary Impact Type
CulturalResearch Subject Area(s)
Studies In Creative Arts and Writing: Film, Television and Digital Media
Language, Communication and Culture: Literary Studies
Summary of the impact
The unique and most defining feature of the indoor Jacobean playhouses
was that they gave their
performances by candlelight. The impact of Martin White's research into
early modern theatre
practices, and into lighting in particular, is that the modern
reconstruction that sits alongside the
Globe playhouse in London — the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse (SWP) — will,
equally uniquely, also
give its performances under candlelight. As a result, the theatre and the
plays presented in it will
complement each other, and for the first time in 450 years audiences will
experience as closely as
possible the impact of early modern plays performed in the environment for
which they were
written.
Underpinning research
The research programme was the first systematic investigation of the
lighting of the early modern
English indoor playhouse ever to have been undertaken. Although candle
light was an integral and
central aspect of early modern performances — influencing how plays were
written, acted and
received — there has been surprisingly little written about it and prior
to this project, no
practical/performance-led investigation whatsoever.
The research has been carried out in four incremental phases, the fourth
of which ran
concurrently and was closely intertwined with the Globe's development of
the SWP. The first
phase, commencing in the early 1990s, comprised a programme of productions
of early modern
plays written specifically for indoor performance. The second phase
(1995-8) involved staging
selected plays in the Wickham Theatre at the Department of Drama at the
University of Bristol on a
skeleton reconstruction of an indoor playhouse. This research was further
developed in 1997 using
a more extended reconstruction thanks to a University award to Professor
White for Excellence in
Teaching and Learning. (Findings from this phase were published in White's
monograph,
Renaissance Drama in Action, Routledge, 1998.) The third phase
(2006-7) was a research project
[1] using a full-scale, fully decorated reconstructed stage and auditorium
based on seventeenth
century drawings held in the library of Worcester College, Oxford (the
drawings currently providing
the basis of the SWP), and culminating in the publication of an
interactive DVD [2] with an
associated website [3]. From the start, this phase was conceived of as a
collaboration between
academic research and the theatre industry. Core funding was provided by a
major award from the
AHRC [1], with additional significant support in kind from Shakespeare's
Globe (costume and
weaponry), the Royal Shakespeare Company (properties), and with Jenny
Tiramani and Dr Farah
Karim-Cooper [f] from the Globe, world authorities respectively on early
modern dress and make-up,
as part of the research team. The texts were performed by professional
actors with experience
of early modern plays at either the RSC or Globe, directed by Martin
White. The research sought
not only to understand the operation and effect of candlelight in all its
modes but also, on the DVD,
to demonstrate for the first time its impact on performance, using
five exemplary plays specifically
designed by their authors for indoor performance, with selected extracts
chosen to explore the
flexibility of the general stage lighting (chandeliers and wall brackets
or sconces), hand-held
candles, lanterns and torches.
The discoveries were revelatory, proving that the candles provided a
satisfactory level of
illumination (while underlining the benefits of the seats closest to the
stage) and that it was
possible to create lighting changes by extinguishing candles near the
stage and altering the height
of the chandeliers above the stage. The research also clarified
contemporary ideas of the effect of
candle light on the colour of costumes and decoration, and revealed the
different relationship
between seeing and hearing from that experienced in modern theatres or,
indeed, the open-air
Globe reconstruction. Particularly striking was the discovery (later
corroborated by White's
research contacts at Cesky Krumlov; see below) that the candles, even
those made of tallow, did
not smoke or smell when lit anywhere near as much as is often claimed in
theatre history books.
A pressing question was how to document and disseminate these major
findings. Fortunately,
this coincided with the emergence of High-Definition video recording
capability that allowed the
work to be filmed in the low light levels provided by the candles. This
was undertaken by a
commercial film production company, Ignition Films, [i] and shot on four
linked HD cameras under
the control of Director of Photography Terry Flaxton. The DVD also
introduced the capacity for the
viewer to select viewing positions in the auditorium with no interruption
of sound or the flow of
action, both significant innovations in the documentation of performance.
The fourth phase (2009-2013)
followed the decision by the Globe Trustees to complete the indoor
playhouse and was
divided into two main areas. The first, focusing on documentary sources
and the experience of
White's practical research, was to confirm that the Worcester College
drawings would remain the
template for the reconstruction; the second was for White to focus on
further investigation into
material choices, such as between beeswax, tallow and modern alternatives,
the nature of the
wicks (more important than had previously been realised), and undertake a
detailed numerical
analysis of contemporary records to determine the number of candles that
were used to illuminate
the indoor theatres, challenging previously held assumptions [5, 6]. In
these matters, and
throughout the whole period, White has worked closely and collaboratively
with all those closely
involved in the project as the candle lighting affects virtually all
decisions. [a, b, c, d, e]
References to the research
[1]. AHRC research grant awarded to Martin White (ref (18461/1): `Working
with Inigo Jones: early
modern theatre in a digital age'*. 2006-7. Value: £77,200. Final AHRC
assessment of outcome:
"outstanding". Subsequently received Dissemination Award, value £10,000.
* This is the original title of the application and award.
However, during the research process the
attribution to Inigo Jones was challenged by the architecture historian Dr
Gordon Higgott (who
argues his case on the DVD [2]). The drawings are now believed to be by
Jones' pupil, John
Webb. See Section 4 below and Martin White, "`A merciful gift": the
Worcester College Drawings,
7B and 7C'. Presentation at the Globe, 25 September, 2010 reviewing the
significance of these
documents for the reconstructed playhouse. (Available on request.)
[2]. Martin White, The Chamber of Demonstrations: Reconstructing the
Jacobean Indoor
Playhouse, interactive DVD, published by Ignition Films for the
University of Bristol. This is the
prime published outcome of [1]. (Submitted to RAE 2008; revised version
published 2009; DVD
available on request.).
[3] Martin White, www.chamberofdemonstrations.com.
This website carries a range of material to
keep the DVD up-to-date, as well as White's public lectures, conference
contributions, etc.,
referred to in this document.
[4]. Martin White, `Research and the Globe', in C. Carson and F.
Karim-Cooper (eds)
Shakespeare's Globe: A Theatrical Experiment, Cambridge: CUP, 2008,
pp. 166-74. (Available on
request.)
[5]. Martin White, "`A darkness comes over the place": artificial
lighting in the early modern
playhouse'. Paper delivered at the Jacobean Indoor Playing Symposium,
King's College, London,
4 February 2012, in which White first advanced publicly his significant
new analysis of the numbers
of candles used in indoor playhouses. (Available on request).
[6]. Martin White "'When darkness made an artificial noon": lighting the
early modern stage, then
and now', Public lecture, Victoria and Albert Museum, 14 July 2013, as
part of the AHRC-funded
Shakespearean London Theatres research project. (Available on request and
at
http://shalt.org.uk/downloads.)
The lecture includes research discoveries made since the
construction on the SWP commenced, material dealt with in more detail in
an 8000-word chapter
with the same title in the book, Moving Shakespeare Indoors, eds.
A. Gurr and F. Karim Cooper
(CUP), forthcoming January 2014.
Details of the impact
1. Impact on the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse. The reconstruction of
the open-air Globe
playhouse was opened in 1997, and from its inception the plan was to
create an indoor playhouse
to stand alongside it, replicating the original Globe-Blackfriars venues
owned by Shakespeare's
company, the King's Men. Although the shell of the indoor playhouse was
built, funding did not
allow completion of its interior at that time. However, in 2009 the Globe
Trustees decided to
complete the indoor project and began to raise the necessary funding.
Research at the Globe is
led by the Architecture Research Group (ARG), which is made up of theatre
professionals, theatre
historians, experts in décor and architects. White has been a member of
this group for over a
decade, was its chair for some years, and in the past four years has been
in constant dialogue with
the Globe about the issues surrounding the lighting of the indoor
playhouse.
The question of the evidence on which to base the design was a crucial
first step. When the
shell was built in 1997 it seemed certain that the Worcester College
drawings were by Inigo Jones,
could be dated around 1617-18 and identified with the Cockpit playhouse
built in that year in Drury
Lane. During the following decade, however, the auspices, date and
identification were challenged,
and the drawings were believed by some scholars to be by John Webb (Jones'
pupil, whose
papers are also held at Worcester College) and potentially dated later in
the century. The basis for
these arguments are explored on the DVD [2], in a discussion between
Martin White and the
leading drawings expert, Dr Gordon Higgott, filmed in the Worcester
College library. Consequently,
White was a key participant in the decision that resulted in a
recommendation by the ARG to the
Globe's Trustees that they continue to use the drawings as the basic model
for the reconstruction,
given that they remain the only extant drawings of the interior of a
Jacobean playhouse, match
every known feature of those playhouses and, importantly, had been tested
in practice by White's
research project and by his productions on reconstructed stages over a
number of years. The
Trustees accepted the ARG recommendation. [a, b].
Attention now turned to the key issue of how to light the SWP. A core
aspect of the Globe's
policy is to explore `original practices', but each theatrical decision
has to be underpinned by viable
research [4], and White's work has been fundamental in providing such
evidence. It had been
generally assumed that it would be necessary to perform using electric
candles (as is the case at
the reconstructed Blackfriars indoor playhouse in Staunton, Virginia, USA)
as opposed to real
candle-light, on the grounds that it was very unlikely that permission
would be granted to perform
publicly using candles to light the theatre. It became central to
White's work to overcome this
assumption. On 21 June 2011, a group of 30 from the Globe, including the
CEO and Artistic
Director, architects, advisors, actors, designers, etc., travelled to
Bristol to work with White and the
Drama Department's reconstruction that was put up in the Wickham Theatre
for the occasion.
Three scenes were performed using three different kinds of lighting
(candles, artificial candles and
conventional stage-lighting) followed by detailed analysis of the results
which confirmed the
preference for real candles, and the Artistic Director asked White to
return to the question of the
number of candles used and the resulting light levels. [b] As a result of
the workshop, the Globe
moved the Bristol reconstruction to London with the intention of erecting
it in the shell of the new
building to provide a template against which to test decision-making.
Clearly, live flame has a number of safety implications, and one of the
major ways in which
White has been able to make an impact is to emphasise the importance and
the unique experience
that candlelight represents, and to explain this view to the London Fire
Service and the Globe's
insurers. [b,d,e] `There has been considerable work undertaken on this
subject by Professor Martin
White at the University of Bristol. This includes the number and location
of candles, the type of wax
used in 16th century candle-making and how the candles were
operated by the stage assistants
and the actors on stage' (Fire Strategy Report, July 2012, p. 69). [e] It
is reasonable to claim that
these presentations overcame initially held doubts and helped clear the
way for the playhouse to
operate as imagined. [b, d, e] Subsequently, White's work and knowledge
has been constantly
drawn on as the fine detail of the lighting (equipment and operation) has
been finalised. [a, b, e]
With no precedents to turn to, White has advised on the positioning of the
chandeliers above the
stage and, most crucially, the height at which they should be hung (which
challenges previously
held assumptions); the composition, size and number of candles (which
White's research has
completely rethought) and the crucial but often over-looked choice of
wicks; the range and nature
of hand-held lighting instruments; and related issues such as the effect
of the paint scheme on the
candlelight and vice versa, a key decision where only practical
investigation can verify ideas drawn
from contemporary references. [c, e]
In November 2011 White was invited to visit the Court Theatre (an opera
house built in
1766 and now a World Heritage site) at Drottningholm, in Stockholm, to
work with a group of
international scholars and theatre practitioners on the question of
lighting this unique building. In
November 2012 he spent time at the Baroque Theatre Institute based in the
eighteenth century
theatre in Cesky Krumlov in the Czech Republic to test out ideas related
to the Globe project. Both
theatres are now lit by electric candles, but retain vital information
about their original candle
lighting in the form of documents, decoration and artefacts. In July 2013
the Globe sent White and
the company's Production Manager on a further visit to Cesky Krumlov, and
the combination of
these visits and White's own research have further influenced specific
decisions at the SWP. For
example, `candle torches' are frequently referred to in early modern
documents, but it was not until
White came across one at Cesky Krumlov that it has been possible to
reconstruct one for the
SWP, solving a previously puzzling problem of exactly what kind of torches
could be employed
indoors. Other key areas that White's research there has helped solve
include the design of the
chandeliers, the auditorium lighting, the paint scheme, and possible
illumination of scenic
elements, [a, b, c, d] while his contacts have resulted in developing an
ongoing relationship
between himself, the Globe and Cesky Krumlov.
There is no doubt that the prospect of working with candlelight, and its
successful
employment at the SWP, has been entered into with a confidence derived
from White's research
work. [a, b, c, d] But while the aesthetic impact of a candle lit theatre
is undeniable, Shakespeare's
Globe is a commercial organisation that receives no state funding
whatsoever, and the fact that all
available tickets for the SWP first season (opening January 2014) sold out
almost immediately is
clear evidence of the financial impact of the new playhouse and its
distinctive lighting.
2. Impact on teaching in the UK and internationally. White has
given many presentations to A-level
students in schools in Bristol on the importance of understanding the
nature of indoor playing
(not least lighting) when studying appropriate play texts. The DVD too has
been influential: `This
extraordinary and innovative DVD . . . is the closest we can come to the
intensity and subtlety of
the candlelit Jacobean playhouse. Ingenious multiple-angle shooting allows
the viewer to
experience the intimacy of the theatre from a variety of viewpoints.
Martin White's gripping and
enthusiastic introduction and interviews with historians, costume and
makeup artists make this an
invaluable resource for A level and Undergraduate students of Literature
and Drama, and shows
the possibilities of recreation for making theatre new.' [h]. The DVD
provides an `interactive and
vividly visual view of Jacobean indoor theatres. . . . A rich diachronic
dialogue between early
modern and twentieth-century performance practices . . . is the sort of
work that White excels in, as
is . . . evident from his Chamber of Demonstrations . . . that
allows the viewer to see the lighting
conditions and staging possibilities'. [g]
3. Impact on audiences beyond academia. Although it has sold to
university libraries around the
world and to individual lecturers and school teachers, the DVD is also
sold via non-academic
outlets including Amazon, French's Bookshop, the bookshops at
Shakespeare's Globe and the
National Theatre as well as via chamberofdemonstrations.com. In all, some
750 copies have been
sold. [i] It has also been disseminated to non-academic audiences through,
for example, its
inclusion in the exhibition, `Painted Pomp' at the Holburne Museum, Bath
(January-May 2013);
White's presentations to a general audience at the Globe's Annual Seminar
(February 2013) [f], the
Society for Theatre Research's `Annual Address' (May 2013) and the public
lecture at the Victoria
and Albert Museum [6] (July 2013), as part of the AHRC-funded
`Shakespearean London Theatres'
project (ShaLT): a video of White's lecture and a filmed interview on
indoor playing are available at
http://shalt.org.uk/downloads;
the interview is also available on YouTube.
Sources to corroborate the impact
[a] The Chief Executive, Shakespeare's Globe.
[b] The Artistic Director, Shakespeare's Globe.
[c] The architect responsible for the completion of the Globe outdoor
playhouse and now for the
SWP.
[d] The Production Manager at the Globe. He and White have worked closely
on the practical
aspects of the design, manufacture and operation of the lighting facility,
chandeliers, wall-brackets,
choice of candles, etc.
[e] The Director of The Fire Surgery (specialists in fire risk), employed
by the Globe to produce the
Fire Strategy, which includes the issues surrounding the use of fixed and
mobile naked flame.
White made a presentation on the history and practice of candle-lit
performances to the London
Fire Service on 6 October 2011.
[f] Head of Research at the Globe and Chair of the ARG (Address as for
[a]).
[g] Pascale Aebischer, Jacobean Drama: Readers' Guides to Essential
Criticism (Basingstoke:
Palgrave MacMillan, 2010), 28-9, 150-1.
[h] The Chief Examiner in English Literature for the Oxford and Cambridge
Examination Board.
Review of DVD at:at:http://www.amazon.co.uk/Chamber-Demonstrations-Reconstructing-Jacobean-playhouse/dp/B001YAIDTA/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1323682871&sr=8-1.
[i] Ignition Films, Bristol.