Officialy, they only used men - women weren't allowed to perform in theatres. Of course, that didn't stop some of them from disguising themselves as men in order to get on stage. And when they did, they would often play the female roles. And as I'm sure you know, some of Shakespeare's female characters spend some time disguised as men, and so you would sometimes have a woman who was pretending to be a man who was pretending to be a woman who was pretending to be a man. Are you confused yet?
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"Things in life aren't always quite what they seem, There's more than one given angle to any one given scene. So bear that in mind next time you try to intervene On any one given angle on any one given scene." Angles - dan le sac vs. Scroobius Pip