Christopher Beeston (c. 1579 – c. 15 October 1638) was a successful actor and a powerful theatrical impresario in early 17th century London.
A woman named Margaret White, the widow of a cloth worker, accused him of raping her on Midsummer night and leaving her pregnant.
The hearing recommended that Beeston be prosecuted, but no records of a trial survive; it appears that the case did not follow through, perhaps for lack of evidence.
[4] In this capacity, he worked closely with Thomas Heywood, producing most of that prolific writer's plays at the Red Bull Theatre.
The Cockpit offered credible competition to the King's Men at the Blackfriars Theatre for the wealthier set of playgoers; Beeston employed fashionable playwrights such as John Ford and James Shirley to attract these audiences.
After the temporary demise and ultimate eclipse of the Fortune Theatre in 1621, the Red Bull was the main attraction in Middlesex for citizens and apprentices.
Richard Halpern (1991), The Poetics of Primitive Accumulation: English Renaissance Culture and the Genealogy of Capital, Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, ISBN 978-0-8014-9772-8.