Tennis-Court Theatres

The Concise Oxford Companion to the Theatre | 1996 | 700+ words | Copyright

Tennis-Court Theatres. Both in Paris and in London in the mid-17th century, tennis-courts were converted into theatres. Among the most famous were the Illustre-Théâtre (1644), where Molière first acted in Paris, and, in London, Killigrew's Vere Street Theatre (1660) and Davenant's Lincoln's Inn Fields Theatre (1661). They were used only for a short time, and their conversion into theatres must have entailed no more alteration than could have been easily removed to allow them to revert to their original use. The rectangular shape of the tennis-court auditorium, which approximated more to the private than the public Elizabethan theatre auditorium, had an important influence on the development of the French playhouse, and may also have influenced the eventual shape of the English Restoration theatre, just as the boxes round the pit may have developed partly from the ‘pent-house’ or covered way which ran along one side and one end of the court itself.

Cite this article
Pick a style below, and copy the text for your bibliography.

MLA
Chicago
APA

PHYLLIS HARTNOLL and PETER FOUND. "Tennis-Court Theatres." The Concise Oxford Companion to the Theatre. 1996. Encyclopedia.com. 30 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

PHYLLIS HARTNOLL and PETER FOUND. "Tennis-Court Theatres." The Concise Oxford Companion to the Theatre. 1996. Encyclopedia.com. (May 30, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O79-TennisCourtTheatres.html

PHYLLIS HARTNOLL and PETER FOUND. "Tennis-Court Theatres." The Concise Oxford Companion to the Theatre. 1996. Retrieved May 30, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O79-TennisCourtTheatres.html

Learn more about citation styles