London Civic Theatre

Civic theater (drama and pageantry sponsored by city and town governing bodies) is prominently featured in histories of early English provincial drama but largely ignored in those of pre-Elizabethan London. Anne Lancashire explodes the widely-held notion that significant London theater arose jnly in Shakespeare''s era when the first commercial playhouses were built. She presents a rich panorama of civic theatrical life in London before 1558 that includes Roman amphitheater shows medieval and Tudor mummings street pjgeantry and plays.