A rare example of a surviving Shakespearean venue

It's a rare example of a surviving venue where Shakespeare's plays were performed in his lifetime. Shakespeare’s company visited the tiny Kent village of Fordwich near Canterbury as The King’s Men in 1605-6, when records show the players were paid ten shillings by the town.

The actors are thought to have performed in the upper room of the town’s small medieval guild hall which survives to the present little altered.

This makes the venue one of the few surviving buildings likely to have staged a Shakespeare play during the dramatist’s own lifetime…a rare example of a Shakespearean ‘theatre’ which still exists.

In this case the audience was presumably a select one, perhaps limited to local civic officials. The records don’t tell us which play or plays Shakespeare’s company performed in Fordwich but in 1605-6 the troupe’s new Shakespeare plays included All’s Well That Ends Well, King Lear, Macbeth, and Antony and Cleopatra and they performed Henry V and The Merchant of Venice at court in 1605 so there’s a chance that these were also in the touring repertory and would have been available for performance in Fordwich.

As when they visited other Kentish towns, it is possible that the company would have performed one or more plays which alluded to Kent. Henry V might have been of appeal because of its dramatization of Anglo-French conflict and English victory.

As in other Kentish coastal towns, the historical danger of French invasion made Anglo-French relations a potential source of interest and anxiety for local people in Fordwich and the ruling elites in particular.

But how could tiny Fordwich – estimated population of only a few hundred people at the time – afford to put on a performance by the prestigious King’s Men? One theory, from a local historian, is that nearby Canterbury had become so puritanical that the mayor of Fordwich saw an opportunity to bring the King’s Men – and perhaps some much-needed business - to the town. It would give those prevented from seeing plays around Canterbury the opportunity to walk or go by horse to nearby Fordwich for their entertainment.