Description

“One of the most exciting and original books about Shakespeare that I’ve read in years.”-James Shapiro

The remarkable untold story of Shakespeare’s first theatre – the playhouse before the Globe

In 1576, in a muddy field in Shoreditch, James Burbage erected London’s first purpose-built commercial playhouse. A place of high culture and quick profit, run by cunning dreamers, the Theatre for the first time offered London’s players the chance to control what they staged. At a time when playgoing was held to be close to a sin, this entertainment factory was a flashpoint for controversy – but would also become Shakespeare’s first theatre, where he learned to ply his trade before his company moved to the Globe.

Through the life of this little-known playhouse, Daniel Swift tells the story of how Shakespeare became Shakespeare, and the Elizabethan stage began to flourish. Introducing us to the businessmen who dreamed up the Theatre, the carpenters who built it, the preachers who hated it, and the actors who performed upon its small stage, The Dream Factory recreates the world that produced Romeo and Juliet and A Midsummer Night’s Dream – and the audiences who first saw them.

Publisher Review

“A thrilling account . . . a story I thought I knew but didn’t. Swift brightly illuminates that raucous, scrappy, litigious world.”-Greg Doran, The Week

“The Dream Factory is one of the most exciting and original books about Shakespeare that I’ve read in years. Deeply researched, beautifully written, it brings to life how Shakespeare ‘became Shakespeare’ and created his early masterpieces at the Theatre in Shoreditch. A thrilling story, well told.”-James Shapiro, author of 1599: A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare

“Sometimes mysteries hide in plain sight and it takes an insightful, patient and astute writer to uncover them. Thanks to Daniel Swift’s brilliant research we now know that Shakespeare’s first playhouse, the Theatre, was just as important to him as The Globe.”-Andrew Hadfield, author of Edmund Spenser

“The Dream Factory brilliantly shows how Shakespeare was not merely a man of the theatre but a man of The Theatre, the playhouse where he developed the mastery of his art.”-David Scott Kastan, author of A Will to Believe