Theater of a City

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Winner of the 2008 Barnard Hewitt Award, this work explores how the public stage represented London in the early seventeenth century. Jean E. Howard argues that the commercial stage thrived on London’s demographic growth and commercial vibrancy, creating a synergy between theater and the city. In London comedy, place serves as a material arena for regulating social relations, negotiating urban issues, and rendering city space intelligible. Rather than merely depicting London, the stage interpreted it, imbuing it with social meaning. Each chapter focuses on specific locations—such as the Royal Exchange, Counters, whorehouses, and academies of manners—examining how theater crafted distinctive narratives about these spaces. These narratives transform specific places into significant social venues, highlighting interactions among citizens, foreigners, debtors, creditors, and more. Collectively, they illustrate how urban space was utilized and by whom, addressing issues like demographic change, the influx of outsiders, evolving gender roles, and the emergence of a unique "town culture" in the West End. Drawing on a range of plays from this pivotal era, the work reveals how the stage imaginatively shaped and responded to the evolving landscape of early modern London.