A Winter's Globe

The Globe 

Although we didn't see the Globe in her wintry mantle, she is still an amazing sight to behold. There was a slight drizzle as we began our tour of the exhibition and went into the open air theatre to see just what the theatre must have been like back in the 16th Century. Our Guide told us that it had been faithfully reconstructed according to the techniques of the day from a few extant drawings and descriptions and that very little in the way of modern means of construction had been used. The oak beams are held together, not with nails, but with wooden pins, and the walls are made with lime paste mixed together with goat and cow hair.

To make the performances really authentic, the groundling area is still open to the elements, so if it rains the 500 standing in that part of the theatre simply have to pull up their hoods (no umbrellas allowed!). Understandably, the season runs only from May to September and they are also only ever held in daylight - but luckily British Summer Time makes it possible to hold evening performances. Apparently there are no intermissions but, just as in Elizabethan times, there are vendors selling snacks during the plays.

Naturally, there are concessions to the safety of the players and audience. With the only thatched roof in London, the theatre is anxious to avoid the replication of the fire that burnt the theatre to the ground in 1613 and that was caused by the firing of a cannon during a performance of Henry VIII! So there is a sophisticated sprinkler system on the roof, four exits instead of two, and a reduced capactity of 1500 people (500 standing and the rest seated on pine benches.

We were there in October, so there was no chance of seeing a performance and we had only a short amount of time to view the excellent exhibition, including the elaborate Elizabethan costumes and a sword-fighting demonstration. However, even that glimpse was inspiring and a tribute to one person's vision and his dogged determination to see it happen. Although he did not live to see the theatre open, he had spent 23 years raising funds for the Shakespeare Globe Trust, which secured the site just 200m from the site of the original theatre and had laid the foundations and begun building the timber bays before he died 3 years before it was completed.

That person was American actor and director Sam Wanamaker and the Globe theatre, exhibition and education centre are his legacy, not just to Britain but to the whole world. I wonder what his many detractors would say now, when they see how successful the project is in recreating some of the flavour of Elizabethan theatre, and how it has become a fantastic educational resource internationally.

There is a lot more on the Globe website and a lot of pictures here. For a really thorough approach, check out these very detailed lesson plans

And the last word goes to Shakespeare. This, from King Lear:

Blow, winds, and crack your cheeks! rage! blow!
You cataracts and hurricanoes, spout
Till you have drench'd our steeples, drown'd the cocks!
You sulphurous and thought-executing fires,
Vaunt-couriers to oak-cleaving thunderbolts,
Singe my white head! And thou, all-shaking thunder,
Smite flat the thick rotundity o' the world!
Crack nature's moulds, and germens spill at once,
That make ingrateful man!