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Capital One Bank Guy (0:00)
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Aaron Manke (0:34)
Welcome to Erin Menke's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of iHeartRadio and Grim and Mild. Our world is full of the unexplainable, and if history is an open book, all of these amazing tales are right there on display, just waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities. Every form of art has to earn its legitimacy, whether it's theater, film, comic books, or video games. For some reason, it's a very human trait to look down upon emerging forms of entertainment as lesser to what came before. Theater seems like the most prestigious medium in modern entertainment. But there was a time when the theater was seen as a disreputable place where actors were seen as little better thugs. In 1597, theaters throughout London closed due to an outbreak of the plague. For those of us who can remember the year 2020, this sounds familiar. An actor named Richard Burbage ran his own theater company, the Lord Chamberlain's Men, and when theaters reopened later that year, the company was anxious to get back to work. But there was a problem. Although Richard owned the theater they performed at, literally just called the Theater, he did not own the land that belonged to one Giles Allen, a Puritan that Richard had a history of fighting with. Giles decided that he didn't want to contribute to the sinful world of the theater any longer, and so he refused to allow the Lord Chamberlain's Men to resume their performances. Not only that, but he claimed that since the theater was on his land, it belonged to him. And obviously this stung Richard, as the theater had been in his family for decades. Now all his company could do was move to a different theater his family owned and resume their performances. But he couldn't just let go of what happened with Giles. It was an injustice, an insult to his family's name. So he reached out to the members of his company, offering them a business deal. If they could each cover 10% of the costs of constructing a new theater, then they could receive 10% of all the profits going forward. Not only that, but Richard knew a way that they could cut down on their construction costs if they Were willing to do some of the legwork themselves. Late at night, on December 28th of 1518, Richard and his troop of actors armed themselves with various construction tools and with swords. They set out in the night, Arriving at the site of their old theater. Then they proceeded to dismantle it piece by piece. When surrounding onlookers began to notice what they were doing, they chased them off. They didn't worry about someone alerting Giles Allen, as Richard had made sure that he was away in the country celebrating Christmas. Now, history differs here on just how quickly the men were able to take down the theater. It was rather large, with a stage and a three sided triple decker proscenium. Some accounts say that despite its size, they deconstructed the whole thing in one night. Some historians are more conservative though, and say that it took them a few days. Regardless, when Giles Allen returned to London, he was furious to find that his land was empty. He sued Richard, claiming that he had caused a huge stir in the neighborhood, Violently Threatened the locals, and trespassed on his land. But the courts wouldn't hear it. They found that the original contract between Richard's family and Giles Stated that they definitely owned the theater and could do with it as they pleased. With Giles defeated, Richard and his men could finally construct their new theater on new land that they leased from a much more reasonable landlord. In the coming months, one of Richard's young playwrights Produced several plays that were big hits with audiences. Richard pioneered many of the leading roles, including characters such as Julius Caesar, Romeo, Hamlet, and King Lear. The young playwright was William Shakespeare, and the new theater was the Globe. Now, not everything was sunshine and roses. From there on out. Although the theater became immensely profitable, it did have its ups and downs. In 1613, for example, a cannon misfired during a production of Henry viii, Igniting the theater and burning it to the ground. The theater was rebuilt, but by this point, Shakespeare had retired. He died just a few years later in 1616. Richard Burbage followed in 1619. Both men were in their early 50s when they passed away, and although they experienced great success later in life, they spent many years struggling to be respected In a fickle culture that wasn't sure how they felt about the theater. In fact, just a few decades after their deaths in 1642, the new right wing, ultra conservative Pur England shut down all theater for nearly two decades before the monarchy was restored and ended this oppressive policy. If Giles Allen had still been alive, he might have seen this as a bit of revenge. But of course, Richard and Shakespeare won out in the end, with their work going on to become some of the most impactful art in Western civilization, It's curious to think that this would never have been possible if they didn't set out one night in 1518 to steal back what was rightfully theirs.