Are Plays Games?

Abstract

This essay is in two parts. In the first part, I explore in what way and to what extent it might make sense to think of a play as a game. In the second part, I argue that this way of thinking about a play can illuminate a tradition of plays and playing that underlies much late medieval and early modern drama, and, further, that such “ludic” performance has recently become more visible in theatre history through the experiments of “historically informed” troupes, such as in particular those of the "Original Shakespeare Company".