As Howard Barker protests in his "Arguments for a Theatre," modern plays tend to be stuck in "the room." The characters are inseparable from the sordid, neurotic little spaces they occupy. Bedrooms, drawing rooms, courtrooms. Kitchens, classrooms, toilets. A very dull and literal definition of theatrical space. When one thinks of Shakespeare, one doesn't imagine any rooms. His characters inhabit historical space, erotic space, philosophical space, martial space.
