To concentrate upon the many stage directions that invoke a theatrical as [if] is to bring into focus some fruitful questions and problems. Among the most challenging is how “place” or locale was signaled in the original productions. For centuries, readers of Shakespeare's plays have conjured up images in the theatres of their minds of famous moments linked to specific places (so who knows not “the Balcony Scene” or “the Forum Scene”?). Few of those readers, however, are aware of how little evidence has survived about the presentation of such places at the Globe. Admittedly, Elizabethan dramatists and players often did call attention to distinctive locales as significant parts of their narratives, so that the extant manuscripts and printed texts regularly direct figures to enter in prison, in the shop, or in his study. To determine how such effects were actually implemented, however, is no easy matter. The varying formulations, moreover, can have significant implications for the interpretation of Shakespeare's plays.

Why is “place” such a problem for the historian or interpreter? One reason (as noted in chapter 7) is a product of the limited resources available in a “minimalist” theatre that lacked variable lighting, elaborate sets, and a fourth wall convention.