Siobhan Keenan, Theatre Notebook, 2015 (Vol. 69, No. 1, 65-66)
…Based on a wealth of original archival research, Griffith’s book invites scholars to re-examine traditional assumptions about Queen Anna’s men. This includes drawing attention to the fact that the company did not confine itself to one London playing venue. It performed at the Curtain as well as the Red Bull. Griffith also shows that the troupe did not limit its repertory to “citizen” dramas, but rather performed a generically diverse body of plays, targeted at more than one kind of audience (262). As well as affording new insights into the company and the part played within its history by key figures such as the actor and manager Christopher Beeston, Griffith’s study throws fresh light on the world of early modern theatre more generally. She highlights the close connections between actors and the communities in which they lived and the fluidity of the early seventeenth century theatre world, as players regularly moved between companies…