The reinvention of theatre in sixteenth-century Europe: traditions, texts and performance

The sixteenth century was an exciting period in the history of European theatre.

In the Iberian Peninsula, Italy, France, Germany and England, writers and actors experimented with new dramatic techniques and found new publics.

They prepared the way for the better-known dramatists of the next century but produced much work which is valuable in its own right, in Latin and in their own vernaculars.

The popular theatre of the Middle Ages gave endless material for reinvention by playwrights, and the legacy of the ancient world became a spur to creativity, in tragedy and comedy.