Weathering Shakespeare: Audiences and Open-Air Performance

From The Pastoral Players’ 1884 performance of As You Like It to contemporary site-specific productions activist interventions, there is a rich history of open air performances of Shakespeare’s plays beyond their early modern origins. Weathering Shakespearereveals how new insights from the environmental humanities can transform our understanding of this popular performance practice. Drawing on audience accounts of outdoor productions of those plays most commonly chosen for open air performance - including A Midsummer Night’s Dreamand The Tempest- the book examines how performers and audiences alike have reacted to unpredictable natural environments.

Evelyn O’Malley is Lecturer in Drama at the University of Exeter, UK.