Inner Stage

Inner Stage, presumed feature of the Elizabethan theatre which has aroused a great deal of controversy. It was formerly thought to be either a large curtained recess behind the back wall or a structure projecting on to the stage from the back wall as in the Terence-stage. Some form of concealment must have existed, as stage directions in a number of Elizabethan plays demand ‘a discovery’ by the drawing of a curtain (for example, Ferdinand and Miranda playing chess in The Tempest); but it is now thought that the ‘inner stage’ was nothing more than part of a narrow corridor behind the stage-wall which could be made visible through an opening usually closed by a door or curtain. As it would not have been possible for many people in the audience to see a scene played inside this recess, it seems probable that actors so ‘discovered’ came forward on to the main stage to join in the action of the play. There may also have been small structures—caves, tents, monuments, even simple rooms—either standing free on the stage, as they did in the masque, or abutting on to the back wall. Some such arrangement would have been necessary for the monument scene in Antony and Cleopatra. Stage directions prove the existence of a similar ‘inner stage’ in the Spanish auto sacramental, where a curtain might be drawn back to reveal a crib, or a statue of the Virgin, or the empty tomb of the Resurrection. Because of the uncertainty over its size and position, the term ‘inner stage’ is now being abandoned in favour of the expression ‘discovery space’, which allows for a wide variety of interpretations.