Drama at Drinking Houses: Inn Performances

Abstract

Before the opening and proliferation of purpose-built playhouses in Elizabethan London, acting companies were accustomed to performing in various places in the capital, but particularly favoured playing in inns. Certain drinking houses became famous as theatrical venues in the metropolis (such as the Bell, the Bull and the Bel Savage). Even when the first playhouses opened in London, inns continued to be popular playing places, especially during winter. When Queen Elizabeth’s newly-formed company returned to London after touring the provinces in the summer of 1583, they were licensed to perform on Wednesdays and Saturdays at the Bull and Bell inns, rather than at one of the available playhouses.2 The Lord Chamberlain’s Men may have been performing at the Cross Keys Inn as late as the winter of 1594 (although they had the use of The Theatre and performed at the open-air playhouse in the summer), suggesting that the inn was the players’ preferred winter venue. It is a preference that may have been based on the inn’s provision of an indoor playing space.3 The conversion of a number of London drinking houses (including the Red Bull and the Boar’s Head) into theatres in the Elizabethan and Jacobean periods formalised what had become one customary use of certain metropolitan inns.