Figure XVII Inverness, 1976-Eden Court. Drama Q:len End Stage Drama Platform Stage Opera/Ballet Section friars, Shakespeare's indoor winter theatre. The Cottesloe holds a maximum of 400 people. T he occasional conversion of box theatres-which are generally associated with the theatre of illusion-into horse race tracks and immediately back again into theatres was a surprisingly frequent event in Britain until the early nineteenth century (Figure XX).8 It suggests how flexible, how transfor- mable, were the best eighteenth-century theatres just as was the theatre of Shakespeare, which "unworthy scaffold" had to serve for bear baiting and other sports as well for the actor. 9 Pictorial Evidence Visual evidence of the past often misleads. What is often assumed to be conclusive as visual evidence was usually Figure XVIII National Theatre, 1977. 22 Theatre Design & Technology USITT/Summer. 1978