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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Entertainment
Esther Addley

How the excavation of Shakespeare’s Curtain theatre has changed stage history

Heather Knight crouches over an old stone and brick foundation with scaffolding around it
Archaeologist Heather Knight at the Curtain theatre where the Museum of Shakespeare opens next year. Photograph: Museum of London Archaeology/Historic England/PA

Three metres below ground in a newly developed square in Shoreditch, east London, is a short expanse of brickwork that is both unique and utterly magical.

These low brick walls, measuring 14 metres by five, are the foundations of the stage of the Curtain theatre, where William Shakespeare’s company of actors were based between 1597 and 1599.

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