Because of the survival of the Rose Theatre manager Philip Henslowe's accounts and inventories, better known as Henslowe's Diary, we can gain a wonderful insight into a working theatre in the early modern period and in particular into one outdoor amphitheatre playhouse's repertoire in the last decade of the sixteenth century. The plays that were staged at this time both belonged to and accorded a particular playing identity to the Admiral's Company and they were inevitably strongly influenced by the skill and reputation of their chief actor, Edward Alleyn.

The level of productivity on the part of the Admiral's Company during their residency at both the Rose and subsequently the Fortune Theatres was quite remarkable. Between 1594 and 1597 alone, Andrew Gurr has calculated that they staged eighty-three plays at the Rose, fifty-four of them marked as being ‘ne’ or new by Henslowe in his Diary. In practice this meant that the actors were learning a fresh play every fortnight and that as many as six plays were in repertory in a single week at any given time.