Going to the theater was one of the most distinctive-as well as conspicuous-cultural activities to take place regularly in early modern european cities. Precisely because so many people from all walks of life partook of this highly visible pastime, public theaters became spaces wherein social and cultural boundaries between spectators were easily (and sometimes purposefully) blurred. By focusing on the performative dimension of playgoing in Madrid and london, Western europe’s two strongholds of public theater during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, this study probes some of the social meanings and intentions underlying the practice of attending commercial theater performances in these two capitals.