Includes bibliographical references and index.

Machine generated contents note: pt. ONE 1. 2. 3: pt. TWO 4: 5. New Plays at Shakespeare's Globe Theatre -- The New Globe Plays -- Something Old, Something New -- A reconstructed theatre Specially constructed plays -- Presenting the Past -- Multiple time planes -- Shakespeare's ghost -- Language centre-stage -- Laughing matter -- No fools -- Anachronisms - Paradoxical topicality -- Founding narratives -- Myths and religious narrations -- Histories -- Come all ye..-- The Spectacle of Spectators -- Spectators as participants -- Spectators as a challenge -- Spectators as interlocutors -- Spectators as supernumeraries -- Spectators as subject matter -- Brenton's Globe -- The weight of the Past -- Virtuoso meets Steinway -- History plays for now -- A british epic theatre -- Preverse saints -- Historiographic metatheatre -- Playing to the Crowd -- Aiming at an audience -- Attracting the audience -- Addresing the audience -- Admonishing the audience.