Stages and Playgoers: From Guild Plays to Shakespeare

David E. Kemp, a former professor of drama at Queen’s University, is
the author of The Pleasures and Treasures of the United Kingdom.

The direct address from actor to audience has been a longstanding
tradition in the history of the theatre. The soliloquy allows the
audience to eavesdrop on a character’s inner thoughts. The monologue
is similar but allows for direct audience contact, rather than
metaphysical musing. The aside is much more overt, allowing the actor to
take the audience into his or her confidence and thereby breaking the
suspension of disbelief.

In her eminently readable book, Janet Hill calls these dialogues
“open address.” She argues that open address is a strategy that
challenges playgoers to look for answers that lie beyond the confines of
the stage. The open address appeared frequently in late medieval drama
and was a fixture in the plays of Shakespeare. The technique was
facilitated by the Elizabethan thrust stage, which required actors to
enter and exit through the audience. Hill’s lively and
thought-provoking examination of a native English dramatic tradition
allows us to imagine both historical and contemporary performances in a
completely new light.