The staging of bloody spectacle still poses many questions for scholars. Was stage blood used on the early modern stage? If so, in what form would it have appeared? Reading stage directions such as those in 1 Henry VI, The Bloody Banquet and Appius and Virginia tells us something about practice, but they tell us nothing about the materials used to construct stage blood. Was it indeed pig’s blood as some have suggested? Could they have used more stylised options, such as red ribbons? Or are plays like Macbeth and Titus Andronicus perhaps laden with blood imagery because it wasn’t practical to use ‘real’ blood on the stage?
The Theatre History Seminar provides a forum for theatre historians, actors, directors and postgraduates to share current research into early modern theatre.
