Theatre of Fire

Special Effects in Early English and Scottish Theatre

Philip Butterworth

• Publisher: The Arden Shakespeare
• Year: 2026
• Edition: 1
• eBook ISBN:
  9781350565449
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: European Medieval History
• Index: Literature

This revised edition investigates first-hand evidence of the use of special effects in fire and flame in medieval and Tudor theatre.

Evidence concerning the use of special effects in fire and flame in medieval and tudor theatre points to some hazardous, exciting and spectacular theatrical activity. The effects range from the simple use of candles to impressive 'set-pieces' for dramatic firework events. Although the term 'special effect' is not a medieval one, it is a useful modern term to draw together activity through the production of flame and fire in addition to that produced by the actions of players.

Examining the production of pyrotechnic devices and approaches to their construction, provision and creative use, this book considers five major forms of evidence: guild, civic and ecclesiastical records, firework writers' recipes, eye-witness accounts, recipes in Books of Secrets and explicit stage directions in plays. This edition reidentifies one of the five forms of evidence, the 'explicit stage direction' in use before 1560, as the 'record of performance', and reassesses it in this new light.

This revised edition makes use of related research that has been produced since 1998, when the first edition was published by The Society for Theatre Research, and includes further discussion of the extent to which interpretative weight may be put on to the evidence produced by financial accounts and other civic documents. It also includes wider reflection on the authority of some post-1560 stage directions, improved discussion on the evidence concerning performances of travelling players in taverns, and consideration of subsequent work on special effects.

The work concludes with an extensive set of appendices drawing together primary materials - some published here for the first time - including eye witness accounts and extracts from manuals and recipe books. A substantial expanded Glossary and numerous illustrations completes this uniquely illuminating resource.

Features a new foreword by Peter Meredith (Emeritus Professor of Medieval Drama, University of Leeds, UK)

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-Title Page
• Dedication
• Title Page
• Related titles available from The Arden Shakespeare
• Frontispiece
• Contents
• List of Figures
• Foreword to the First Edition
• Foreword to the Revised Edition
• Prefatory Note
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• 1 Principal effects and their providers
• 2 Fireworks, wildmen and flaming devils
• 3 Fireworks as light, sound, smoke and heat
• 4 Flame as light
• 5 Hell mouth and the dragon
• 6 Royal firework theatre: A postlude
• Conclusion
• Appendix 1 – Excerpts from eye-witness accounts
• Appendix 2 – Firework accounts
• Appendix 3A – John Hester’s stock list 1588
• Appendix 3B – The Grocers’ Company – tariff of charges 1453
• Appendix 4 – Recipes from Babington
• Glossary
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index
• Copyright Page