Today, in most of the theatres in Britain, the stages are situated behind a sort of arch (拱门), called the proscenium (幕布前的舞台部分) arch. The arch runs across the building with the stage on one side of it and the auditorium, housing the audience, on the other. The audience is kept to the area from which it can get a clear view of the stage.【小题1】 The actor can ignore them until the end, when they applaud the performance.

【小题2】 Stage furniture or properties -“props”, as they are referred to in the business -are now as few as possible. Elaborate scenery is used only when it is going to last throughout the play, or when it is so constructed that it can be changed quickly. Modern theatres are built with the stage extending far in front of the proscenium arch, if indeed they have a proscenium arch at all, electricity, already long in use, has recently had a revolutionary effect.

The modern idea of having the stage in front of the proscenium arch is not really modern, of course. It makes our stages much like Shakespeare’s.【小题3】The famous speeches of Hamlet, for instance, can be delivered more quietly and naturally than they were in the last century. The actors no longer have to worry much about not being heard, or about turning their backs to the auditorium.

Moreover, nowadays, people are finding that modern theatres are built to sit in comfortably for two or three hours at a stretch.【小题4】 The result of these improvements is that, in spite of the high price of seats, perhaps more people than ever before are keen on theatre-going.