The French and the English viewed theatrical production in very different ways during the Renaissance. How would you distinguish between the two? What were the audience expectations for the English? What were the audience expectations for the French?

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

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A major difference in Renaissance English and French theatre is in the theatre itself-while by the late 1500s every Londoner was within two miles of a theatre of some kind, the second theatre in France was built in 1629. French dramas were commonly staged on tennis courts, speaking to the importance of theatre in each country. Further, unlike English dramas, which were marked by violence, conflict, and sometimes bawdy humor, French drama was marked by an artificial formality in which symmetry, balance, and decorum were the ideal. Students may also point out that unlike the French, English audiences did not expect to see women on the stage, as this was outlawed in England until 1661.