Historic Theater Discovers 15th-Century Doorway That May Have Led to a Dressing Room

Experts think that a “weird shape” in the wall of the United Kingdom’s oldest working theater was once the doorway to a dressing room—and it could have once been used by William Shakespeare.

The doorway was found during archaeological work at St. George’s Guildhall, a historic theater in the town of King’s Lynn, Norfolk. During recent archaeological work, experts decided to investigate an oddly shaped section of plastered wall on the theater’s ground floor, which the guildhall’s creative director, Tim FitzHigham, had long wondered about, according to a statement from the local borough council.

Specialists helped remove two notice boards and a brick wall dating to the 18th century. Under these layers, they found an “extraordinary” archway that was much older.

“It has got to be pre-1405, as the hall’s medieval roof is held up above it,” says FitzHigham in the statement.

The first recorded performance in St. George’s Guildhall took place in 1445—“a full 119 years before Shakespeare was born,” as the London Times’ Jack Blackburn writes. Built in the early 15th century, the hall originally served as a meeting place for members of a medieval guild, who were likely the first to use the newly discovered doorway.

“Further exploratory work identified the arch as the door to what is believed to be the guild robing room,” says FitzHigham. “This room was used by the highest level of guild members to dress in their finery before feasting upstairs.”

However, the guild eventually stopped using the hall, FitzHigham adds. At that point, the robing room likely became a dressing room or “tiring house” for visiting actors performing at the venue. During Shakespeare’s lifetime, the theater was heavily trafficked by touring dramatists, such as Queen Elizabeth’s Men, an acting company founded in 1583 that performed in St. George’s Guildhall nearly a dozen times.

As Jonathan Clark, an archaeological building expert working at the hall, says in the statement, the archway’s location in the guildhall—possibly at the end of a stairway—provides clues about the room’s purpose.

“It would have given [actors] a private space where they could put things, change and then travel up the staircase to appear on the first floor in their costume,” he says, adding that the “medium-sized, low-status room” may have been closed off only by a curtain.

Though Shakespeare is best known today for his witty and enduring plays, such as Macbeth and A Midsummer Night’s Dream, he was also an actor for nearly two decades. Some historians think Shakespeare performed with the Earl of Pembroke’s Men in King’s Lynn in 1592 and 1593, when London’s theaters were shuttered due to a plague outbreak. During this period, perhaps the playwright changed in St. George’s Guildhall’s dressing room before walking on stage.

“This is another mind-boggling discovery at the Guildhall,” says FitzHigham in the statement. “We’ve got a door that would definitely have been here in the years we think Shakespeare played here. … It is simply staggering that, again, a slight hunch or weird shape in the wall has turned out to be something frankly extraordinary.”

Last year, the theater announced the discovery of the stage’s original floorboards, which date to the early 1400s. Guildhall staffers think the Bard may have performed on them between 1592 and 1593.

However, the question of whether Shakespeare actually performed at the theater has been the subject of heated debate among scholars.

“In Shakespeare’s case, we actually don’t know for certain who he was acting with before 1594,” Siobhan Keenan, a scholar of Shakespeare and Renaissance literature at England’s De Montfort University, told the New York Times’ Derrick Bryson Taylor in October. While the Earl of Pembroke’s Men did perform at the guildhall, Shakespeare’s involvement with the company is “speculative,” she added.

Meanwhile, Tiffany Stern, a Shakespearean scholar at England’s University of Birmingham, thought it was “very likely” that the Bard was a member of the Earl of Pembroke’s Men. As she told BBC News’ Colin Paterson, “The evidence he was there has to be patched together but is quite strong.”

Sonja Anderson | READ MORE

Sonja Anderson is a writer and reporter based in New York City.