Why did Elizabethan theatre depend heavily on the audience’s imagination?

Elizabethan theatre, including performances at the Globe Theatre, relied heavily on the audience’s imagination primarily because of the physical limitations and design of the stage.12

The theatres featured a simple, open platform stage that lacked elaborate scenery or realistic sets. Because there was no pretense of stage realism, the playwrights and actors had to create the world of the play through the power of language, rich costumes, and a few emblematic props. This "symbolic performance" required spectators to actively engage their imaginations to visualize settings and events that could not be literally presented on the "unworthy scaffold" of the stage.1342

Furthermore, the staging was often metatheatrical, with the audience surrounding the stage on three sides, making it impossible to hide the other spectators. This intimacy and lack of visual artifice placed the emphasis firmly on the actor’s ability to interpret the playwright’s words, challenging the audience to "amend" the performance with their own creative reception to achieve understanding and emotional impact.124