Ontologies of Play: Reconstructing the Relationship between Audience and Act in Early English Drama

This article examines the ontological relationship between audience and play in early English drama, a relationship often figured in terms of the distinction between a ‘play world’ and the ‘real world.’ Exploring a proposed disjunction between this modern concept and earlier understandings of dramatic ontology, it tests current paradigms against evidence from medieval and early modern playtexts and records, in particular those pertaining to late-medieval and early-sixteenth-century biblical plays. The article argues that current paradigms are rooted in post-nineteenth century, ‘theatrical’ aesthetics, highlighting key contexts that point towards an alternative relationship, in which characters and events occupy the same spatio-temporal location as the audience. It closes by suggesting some potential implications of such a model for early drama research and performance practice.