Gosbecks Roman Theatre

Theatrum Gosbecciense (conventional)

TheaterBritannia · Colchester, EnglandBuilt 150 CE

Not standing in 117 CE

About

The largest theatre yet found in Roman Britain was a banked earthwork auditorium seating roughly 5,000 spectators around a semicircular stage, standing beside Colchester's most important native temple complex. Excavation found that an earlier timber theatre had stood on the site before being demolished and rebuilt as a turf-and-clay bank held by a stone wall; a coin of Hadrian and pottery found in that rebuild date it to the later 2nd century, decades after Trajan's death. The site is marked out in the grass at Gosbecks Archaeological Park today.

What happened here

Seating is the message: the front rows are reserved by law for the town council, and everyone can see who is sitting where. The building is a half-circle against a tall stone backdrop that also serves as a permanent set, and the acoustics are good enough that an actor can be heard without effort. The programme is mime and pantomime more than the old tragedies — bawdy, topical, sometimes politically sharp enough that performers get exiled. Audiences are loud, partisan, and quite prepared to shout a piece down. Awnings and perfumed water sprays are laid on when the sponsor is generous. Shows are attached to religious festivals and paid for by a magistrate who wants the credit, and his name is on the seating.