SOURCE: “Royal Throne, Royal Bed: John Heywood and Spectacle,” in Medieval English Theatre, Vol. 16, 1994, pp. 66-75.

In the following essay, Axton discusses Heywood's use of startling dramatic effects to convey meaning in several of his plays.

Heywood's only spectacular stage direction comes in A Play of Love:¹

Here the vyse cometh in ronnyng sodenly aboute the place among the audyens with a hye copyn tank on his hed full of squybs fyred, cryeng ‘Water, water, fyre, fyre, fyre, water, water, fyre’ …

1297 sd

Real fire in the theatre is one of the most powerful fears an audience can experience. This eye-catching, heart-stopping display of fireworks brilliantly enlivens a play which, in most respects, resembles a formal debate. Such a dangerous effect of apparent improvisation needs to be skilfully practised to avoid disaster, and it is interesting that the vocal signals are carefully—even metrically—scored to discipline the visual...