Shakespeare's Shoreditch theatre unearthed

Archaeologists have discovered Shakespeare's lost theatre in east London

A shiver of excitement rippled around the theatrical globe as news spread of some grubby red bricks uncovered in a muddy pit off a nondescript street in east London.

Sir Ian McKellen will be making his way to New Inn Broadway in Shoreditch, one of many theatre luminaries impatient to see the site where his hero William Shakespeare learned his trade not just as a playwright but an actor.

The rows of Tudor brickwork uncovered by archaeologists from the Museum of London are believed to be the foundations of The Theatre, lost for more than 400 years since the building was dismantled in a stunt worthy of a Shakespeare comedy.

Jo Lyon, leader of the team of archaeologists, said: "As well as allowing us to walk in the footsteps of Shakespeare himself, the remains help us to start uncovering one of London's enduring secrets. We can now start to work on the detail of what the building here might have looked like, and expand our knowledge of the playhouses of Elizabethan London."

Twenty years ago Sir Ian played a leading role in a star-studded cast, including Laurence Olivier and Judi Dench, assembled to campaign (successfully) to save the remains of the Rose theatre, the first theatre built on the Southwark side of the Thames.

However The Theatre, on the north bank, was ten years older, one of the first purpose-built theatres in the capital, strategically sited just outside the boundaries - and taxes and censorship - of the city.

It was built in 1576 as the first permanent base for James Burbage's group of travelling players, The Lord Chamberlain's Men, a company that included a likely young man from the provinces, called Shakespeare.

In the winter of 1599 Burbage fell out with the owner of the land under his building, and according to theatre legend, in the deserted streets at dead of night on Christmas Eve, the players and the stage carpenter dismantled the building and shipped it across the river, where its timbers would rise again as the Globe.

By the time the Globe opened on the South Bank in 1599, Shakespeare was a star, a shareholder in the new enterprise, and an author whose plays were such crowd pullers that the less successful Robert Greene sneered bitterly that the "upstart crow ... is in his own conceit the only Shake-scene in a country".

It was undoubtedly on the road and in Shoreditch, with Burbage's son and star actor Richard, that the upstart crow learned his trade, what worked and what bored the groundlings so that they started cracking walnuts and gossiping, how many kickshawses Andrew Aguecheek could dance across the thrust stage before he fell off into the pit, and what carried to the top gallery of The Wooden O: the famous phrase from Henry V almost certainly refers to The Theatre and was first heard there.

The team from the Museum of London has been re-drawing the theatrical map of Shakespeare's London, working on the sites of the Rose, the Hope, and the Globe itself - still buried under a modern building.

Usually they are racing ahead of the piledrivers for towering blocks of offices and flats. This time the site was being cleared for a new theatre - like the original, a first permanent home for a touring company, the 75-year-old Tower Theatre Company, one of the great survivors of the amateur theatre world.

Jack Lohman, director of the Museum of London, said: "The finds at New Inn Broadway offer a tantalising glimpse into Shakespeare's city, and the proposed theatre development on this special site seems a fitting way to harness the energy and spirit of a place that is so central to the story of London and Londoners."

The crook-of-an-elbow-shaped angle of red brick uncovered is believed to be the north-east corner of the building - an important discovery that will help calculate the exact shape and dimensions of the theatre. Archaeologists will now be working with architects to see if any of the remains can be preserved on display in the new building.

Archéologie

Le théâtre disparu de Shakespeare

Des archéologues anglais ont découvert les ruines d’un théâtre très ancien, qui avait vu naître les premières pièces de William Shakespeare.

Être ou ne pas être, telle est la question… que ne se posent plus les archéologues ! Ça y est, ils ont découvert les vestiges du théâtre dans lequel William Shakespeare a joué ses premières pièces. Ce dramaturge anglais du XVIe siècle est célèbre pour sa tragédie Roméo et Juliette. Le théâtre de Shoreditch, situé dans l’est de Londres (capitale de l’Angleterre), hébergeait la troupe de Shakespeare. Mais après plusieurs disputes entre les comédiens et les propriétaires du lieu, ces derniers ont décidé de le démonter, au cours d’une nuit, en 1599. Le bois a été réutilisé pour construire un autre théâtre, plus au sud. Et peu à peu, la scène de Shoreditch a été oubliée. C’est en décidant de construire un nouveau lieu de spectacles que les experts du Musée de Londres ont retrouvé, le 6 août dernier, la trace de ce théâtre disparu.

Vestiges : ce qui demeure d’une chose disparue.
Dramaturge : auteur de pièces de théâtre.

Lucie Souliac

le 09 août 2008