Sometimes productions of Shakespeare on the modern stage still use some of the devices of the old Elizabethan theater. Here we see the three witches in Macbeth disappearing "into the earth" through trapdoors in the stage. Shakespeare would have had the witches use the trapdoor and hide their exit with a smoke bomb.

Here we see Romeo and Juliet in the tomb. Shakespeare would have been staged this scene with Juliet's body in the inner stage, between the two doors at the back of the main stage. At some point in the final scene Juliet's body on a bier might have been thrust out onto the main stage using two long poles.

Here is the famous balcony scene from Romeo and Juliet done on the modern stage. Notice the physical separation between the lovers, which forces their entire ardor and sexual energy into language, fortunately for the audience.

Here we see the rather primitive way Shakespeare's theater made smoke for a play like Macbeth which refers to the "foul and filthy air." The modern theater accomplishes the same effect using chemical smoke or lighting. Shakespeare's Globe Theater relied upon natural sunlight to illuminate the stage.