The rectangular Shakespearean theatre reshaping stage history

Three metres below ground in a newly developed square in Shoreditch, east London, is a short expanse of brickwork that is both unique and utterly magical.

- Esther Addley

These low brick walls, measuring 14 metres by five, are the foundations of the stage of the Curtain theatre, where William Shakespeare's company of actors were based between 1597 and 1599.

It was on this stage that Romeo and Juliet and Henry V are believed to have first been performed. And next year, with the opening of a Museum of Shakespeare on the site, visitors will be able to stand - perhaps even to act - on the very same spot, thanks to a glass floor suspended over one of the most important and resonant spaces in theatrical history.

Shakespeare was associated with several London playhouses, including the Theatre, nearby in Shoreditch, and the Globe, across the Thames in

Bankside. Nowhere else, however, can visitors stand on the footprint of the actual stage where Shakespeare performed - the current Globe is a modern reconstruction near the original theatre site - or see the original Elizabethan floor on which he and fellow players stood in the wings.