Long before the invention of modern technologies, such as radios and televisions, movies, video game systems and the ever popular internet, people in the Elizabethan age created an elaborate system of activities and events to keep themselves entertained. And one of their main passions was theatre. Theatre was for people in Early Modern England what television is for us today.
People went to the theatre to be entertained, and the poor and the rich alike gathered in playhouses in the afternoon to see plays performed. Shakespeare was one of the most popular playwrights of this time and often if you were going to go see a play performed it was most likely written by him.
Going to a play in early modern England not only involved the actual act of going to see the play, but it was also about paying money to enter the playhouse and mingle with observe and be observed by people of both sexes and many different social classes Howard Theatres were instead built on the South bank of the Thames River. This was to avoid the strict regulations of London at the time.
The city of London did not approve of theatre because public performances were thought to be a breeding ground for the plague and for unseemly behavior Howard The theatre often served as a place for prostitutes and their customers, and many people did not like the fact that the theatre allowed several different social groups to mix together Howard There were no toilet facilities in the theatres and people relieved themselves outside.
Sewage was buried in pits or disposed of in the River Thames, this improper sanitation could have been responsible for outbreaks of the plague, which was the only time when then there was less of an audience at the theatres Elizabethan Era. Even though theatres moved out of London to avoid certain persecution they were still censored.
