Excavation finds early Shakespeare theatre was rectangular

Foundations of the Curtain, where Romeo and Juliet and Henry V were possibly first staged, uncovered in Shoreditch

The foundations and shoulder-high walls of the Curtain theatre, where Shakespeare performed as an actor and may have staged the first performances of Romeo and Juliet and Henry V, have been uncovered in a development site in Shoreditch.

To the consternation of archaeologist Julian Bowsher, an internationally acknowledged expert on Shakespeare's theatres, the excavation of the foundations and a long stretch of the back wall of the stage prove that the theatre was rectangular, not the "wooden O" of the famous prologue to Henry V.