ABSTRACT
Most performances of Tudor interludes took place in the Great Halls which were the centre of royal palaces, castles, private mansions, guildhalls, school buildings and colleges. This central feature of such buildings was the venue for all sorts of entertainments, especially feasting, but also concerts, dances, masquerades and more, so that drama rubbed shoulders with all sorts of other forms of entertainment. Plays were usually only a part of any festive evening, and the players had to be ready to cut or expand their performances at the shortest notice, or to include intervals between scenes so that those who were there for convivial reasons could get on with their eating and drinking. Some playscripts, indeed, forewarn of this: Rastell includes a note addressed to actors in his published script of The Four Elements that ‘if ye list ye may leave out much of the sad matter’ in the play.
