Enter the Whole Army: A Pictorial Study of Shakespearean Staging, 1576–1616

Walter Hodges enjoys a unique reputation as both illustrator and scholar of the Renaissance theatre. This book consists of fifty of his drawings, with accompanying text, which together reconstruct the original staging of scenes from Shakespeare's plays. It offers imaginative solutions to the puzzling questions which surround those early performances at the large public and smaller private theatres. Hodges creates visual explanations for specific scenes and incidents in the plays, such as Cleopatra's monument, or the siege of Orleans. He shows different uses of the 'discovery space' and upper stage, the creative use of stage posts and trap doors and the employment of special effects. With the rebuilding of the Globe Theatre on Bankside scholars, actors and directors are confronting again the problems of staging which Shakespeare's theatre provokes. Walter Hodges' ingenious and practical solutions will appeal to students and theatregoers alike.