‘Passing over the Stage’

Abstract

In his article, ‘Passing over the Stage’, Allardyce Nicoll concluded that to ‘pass over the stage’ meant to enter the yard, ascend and cross the platform, and then return to, and exit from, the yard.¹ This essay still seems to exert some influence despite a practical difficulty.² Plays performed at private playhouses as well as those performed at public playhouses provide entry stage directions that include ‘passing over the stage’ or the like. It would not have been easy for actors to use the indoor theatres’ pit, with its seated audience, in the same way that they could have used the yard in the amphitheatres. There is no evidence that either of these sorts of theatre had any access up to the stage from the yard or the pit, while it seems likely that in some theatres the edge of the stage was fenced with low rails. At least three plays, including one performed at a public playhouse, provide stage directions which imply that the actors used stage doors when they passed ‘over the stage’.