Acting in the Plays

Searching in play texts for clues that would explain how Shakespeare’s plays were acted originally, scholars had proposed two opposing answers: an old-fashioned formal style derived from training in rhetoric and oratory and a new one that mirrored life, was called ‘natural’ and could be mistaken as ‘real’. The actor’s art was changing at the same time as the playwright’s, the two aiding and abetting each other as they drew audiences to the newly built public theatres.