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, dream space.
