FROM BANKSIDE TO THE WEST-END, A COMPARATIVE VIEW OF LONDON AUDIENCES

The received wisdom regarding the composition of the audience for Shakespeare's theatre has shifted in accordance with the social assumptions of the times - from Alfred Harbage's assertion of a popular, homogeneous audience, evolved for the egalitarian forties, to Ann Jennalie Cook's argument for a ‘privileged’ audience, put forward in the elitist eighties. While Andrew Gurr's Playgoing in Shakespeare's London corrects the worst excesses of both views, it remains dependent upon a great deal of inference from inadequate documentation, often directed to other purposes, and sometimes upon necessary guesswork, however rooted in common-sense. Caroline Gardiner teaches and researches in the Department of Arts Policy and Management at City University, whence have emerged the most detailed attempts to ‘profile’ the theatregoing populace of contemporary London: And here she suggests that some of the approaches and even the findings of modern audience researchers may shed new light on the controversy. Sometimes the results are surprising - and include the possibility that, relative to the pool of population available, theatre is now actually a more popular activity than in Shakespeare's London. However, she concludes that, overall, the percentage attending the theatre has remained remarkably constant, and constantly low. © 1994, Cambridge University Press. All rights reserved.