Discovering Discovery Spaces: What’s Really Behind the Arras

The Wizard of Oz had a little curtain. Cyrano de Bergerac's was made of pen and paper. Where does this tradition of hiding oneself on stage come from? To uncover this, researchers must return to the beginnings of modern drama. Perhaps the most well-known usage today of the popular discovery space trope in drama of the English Renaissance is in Hamlet, when Polonius hides behind an arras to spy on Hamlet’s discussion with his mother Gertrude. What is frequently overlooked is just how frequently this plot device was really used in early modern English drama. In The Duchess of Malfi, A Woman Killed With Kindness, and even Bartholomew Fair, the discovery space is used to great effect, as it is in Hamlet and Othello. By examining how and under what circumstances the discovery space was used, it will be possible to understand why this device was so common, where it comes from and how the idea of the discovery space lives on in theater today.