1. the theatres were open to everybody, as there was no distinction between Court taste and public taste, and the admission prices were relatively low;

2. plays could be understood even by people who were unable to read and write;

3. the theatre-going habit, which can be traced back to medieval performances, was widespread;

4. a new interest in classical drama had been introduced by Humanism; there was a great number of talented playwrights;

5. the commercial potential of the theatre was very great; the theatre was patronized by Court and aristocracy;

6. the shape of the theatre and of the stage was dramatically functional; the language used was more alive and direct than that of poetry and prose;

7. Elizabethan England was quite “theatrical” in itself;

8. the theatre was, inwardly and outwardly, the real mirror of society.

Up to 1576, plays were acted above all in the inns, on a platform raised in the yard, which, surrounded by galleries, made a wonderful auditorium. These performances were so successful, that, in 1576, outside the town walls, James Burbage, an actor and a carpenter, decided to build the first public playhouse which he called "The Theatre". Within a few years, theatre-building having proved a profitable commercial activity, it was followed by a lot of others, the most famous of which was "The Globe".

In spite of differences in detail, the buildings had some main features in common. On the model of the old inn-theatres, they were designed as large wooden structures, circular or octagonal in shape, with three tiers of galleries surrounding a yard open to the sky. Into this yard projected a roofed stage, raised about five feet from the ground, where most of the action took place.

At its back there was a curtain, which could be drawn, thus revealing a second stage (inner stage) for smaller scenes. Over the back of the outer stage there was a third one (upper stage), used by musicians or to represent a balcony or the walls of a town.

The characters entered and disappeared through two doors on either side of the curtain. There were no curtains concealing the upper and outer stages from the audience, and there was very little scenery. Very simple objects were enough to symbolize a place or the role of an actor: so a table stood for a room, a bush in a vase for a forest and a crown for a king. Useful indications were also given in the lines of the play.

Performances usually began at two o' clock in the afternoon and lasted for little more than two hours. To go and stand in the yard cost one penny, and to sit in one of the galleries two pennies. The nobles, or people who could afford up to 12 pennies, could sit on the stage, while the groundlings (1-penny payers) gathered around the three open sides of it.

Companies of actors were formed by professional actors who were servants of one particular Lord, from whom they took their name: Lord Chamberlain’s men, Lord Admiral’s Men and later The King’s Men.

Women were not allowed on the stage, and they were replaced by boy-actors. The costumes were wonderful and expensive 16th-century dresses, worn even in roles such as Julius Caesar or Antony and Cleopatra, which did not seem to disconcert the audience at all.

The necessity of pleasing, on the one hand, their patrons, whom they depended on financially, and on the other, the crowd, which filled the theatres, led the playwrights to compose plays that could be enjoyed by both types of public.

Plautus and Seneca influenced Elizabethan writers above all. The most important characteristics were division of the play into five acts, atmosphere of horror, presence of ghosts, revenge theme, tragic declamation, sanguinary plot, long monologues, bloody scenes.

The Elizabethan theatre was the product of a perfect fusion of traditional and classical elements, the merging of which gave the following results:

- in spite of the classical Seneca, there was no observance of the three unities (time, place and action),

- the chorus of ancient drama slowly disappeared;

- there was a mixture of tragic and comic elements in the same play, due to the influence of the interludes;

- Fate, which dominated men's actions in Greek plays, was-replaced by free will and personal choice.