Chance to see floorboards that Shakespeare probably performed on at historic theatre

An exciting opportunity to see the floorboards that Shakespeare is thought to have performed on has emerged.Renovation work is continuing on St George’s Guildhall in Lynn, which is one of the oldest working theatres in the country.Many discoveries have been made at the Guildhall so far since the work began, including the team finding a 600-year-old doorway that may once have led to William Shakespeare’s dressing room.

Now, the entirety of the historic flooring has been unveiled and is now available for members of the public to view for a limited time.Documents showed Shakespeare acted at the venue in 1592 or 1593, according to the theatre.Only about one metre of the stage could initially be exposed, but work meant the rest could be on display from this month.

Creative director Tim FitzHigham said: “What we’ve now been able to tell by this archaeology that we’ve been doing on the floor is we’ve completely now got a very clear picture of the gallery from 1419. “We’ve proved it was there. We’ve proved exactly where it was in the venue. We’ve proved exactly how it was set up and how it was configured.”Mr FitzHigham added that it is believed that Georgians in 1747 had raised some of the original floorboards from 1419. “We know the Georgians thought Shakespeare performed at the Guildhall. It is highly likely they decided that this was the special area where Shakespeare performed,” he added.

“So they raised up that floor to allow themselves to perform on these amazing stage boards as well.“We’ve got a whole raft of previous stages and theatre layouts. At the moment, we are doing some very complicated, fiddly archaeology to try and understand exactly how those earlier stage layouts relate to each other.”Among the original floorboards, various items were found which showed what people were eating while they watched shows in the 1400s.

“We found nuts in the floorboard cracks, so we know that they were eating nuts in the way that we would eat popcorn,” Mr FitzHigham said. “We found oyster shells down there and smashed bottles of wine. We found pipes, and people were clearly smoking pipes in the audience.”Gaming tokens were also found among the floorboards, suggesting that people could have played games at the Guildhall.

“It’s opened up a lot of possibilities. But this was at the very earliest stages of the theatre audiences in this country, and it’s on display for the people, both in Lynn and outside of Lynn.“I’m a bit blown away by the whole thing. I hoped that we would find something significant and something exciting.“I feel really honoured to have been able to be a person sort of in the middle of all this, watching these amazing discoveries come out, especially as someone who’s born in Lynn and performed in the theatre and whose parents have also performed in the theatre.” Exciting times are ahead for the Guildhall, as renovation plans are set to celebrate its rich history while operating as a functional theatre used by many aspiring actors over the years.

Mr FitzHigham added: “We’re going to carry on doing our amazing education programme, which to date has reached over 10,000 children and young people within the borough.“It is a very exciting education project that’s proving really popular and successful with all of our partner schools and the home education network.“It is just so exciting to see the children coming in and enjoying this, getting the most out of it, getting excited about theatre.”

The £20m renovation of the Guildhall is being led by West Norfolk Council, and is hoped to create jobs and low-cost tickets for shows.It is expected to fully reopen in January 2027.You can see the original floorboards at the Guildhall between now and July 31. More information can be found on its website.