Lighting up Shakespeare

The Jacobean artificial light – candlelight – was as important to the playwright as lighting effects are to a modern-day designer. This chapter explores the recreation of candlelight using a safe alternative, the most modern of technology and the future of stage lighting: LEDs. In order to recreate the candlelight of Shakespeare’s stage, the research is categorized into three sections: replicating the Jacobean stage accurately, achieving a colour match for the tallow candles using LEDs and creating the ambience and “flicker” a candle emits. This is then applied practically and allowed a play to be seen authentically and uniquely whilst also revealing interesting results from experimental data.