Read Not Dead: All the surviving plays, 1567-1642

Read Not Dead was started by Patrick Spottiswoode of Globe Education in 1995; it is a long term project to perform, with professional casts, every play that survives from 1567-1642. This site presents a record of those performances; linking them to what we know about the earlier performance history of each play and the places it was played. The site is organised into three collections: information about the play, known performances before 1642, and Read Not Dead performances. You can leap from one collection to another using the links provided in each record. The interactive map shows which playing spaces were open in any year between 1567 and 1642. It can act as a starting point to look into the companies that played in these spaces, and (where we know them) the plays in their repertory.

Advanced Search

Read Not Dead Performances

This collection holds the date, venue, director and cast of each performance. You can read the programme, and (for recent performances) read or download the script and listen to a discussion between the director and a scholar.

Play records

This collection collates information about the pre-1642 performances and Read Not Dead ones for each play. You can group plays by author, date, genre, period, company, historic playing space and other filters.

Performances pre 1642

This collection collates what we know about performances before 1642. You can select by play or plays, date or location of performance; companies, and in some cases actors, with links to Read Not Dead performances.

Map & Timeline

The map is interactive. You can see which playing spaces were open in any year between 1567 and 1642, the companies that played in the space, and (where known) the plays in their repertory. You can also use the map as a starting point to search the records in the rest of the site.