Shakespeare's Old Globe Theatre

Our friend Jason invited us to join him at the Shakespeare Old Globe Theatre for a performance of Anne Boleyn. It isn't a play written by Shakespeare. In fact it is a recently written play, but it is written in the style of Shakespeare, and is meant to be performed in the round, which is the way the theater is designed to showcase productions.









I reserved our seats, and also paid an extra 1 GBP to have a cushion. I didn't realize it, but the theater only has benches with no backs. For another 1 GBP, I could have reserved a folding seatback that would have given us some back support. Either that, or if we were to sit in the back row, we would have had the wall to lean back against. The person in front of me had the back support, and he kept leaning back into it, and hitting my knees.

The production was great, and I feel as though for the first time I got an idea of how Shakespeare's plays were meant to be performed. There is a lot more relating to the audience, and the long and lengthy monologues solicit audience identification.

The stage is much as I had imagined it from descriptions in school. It was exciting to see such a passionate and faithful recreation of a theatre that last stood in the 1600's.





The theatre is as accurate as can be achieved in this modern day. It is complete with an authentic thatch roof, which was what caused the destruction of an early incarnation of the theatre.








Nowadays, the roof has a sprinkler system just in case.






Shakespeare's Old Globe Theatre is the brainchild of actor Sam Wanamaker, an American who had the idealistic/naive notion that such a theater would have been standing when he came to London to work on a film back in the 70's. To his surprise, only a small plaque existed to mark the location. For the next decade, he gathered support and money to acquire the property and build the theatre. Sadly, he died before he had the chance to see his dream completed.




In front of the theatre are stone plaques recognizing the contributions of different organizations and individuals who helped to make it a reality.








I was pleased to see some the American Film studios represented as contributors.







After the show, we had a small tour of the theatre and the adjoining Shakespeare museum. I don't know that it is necessary to take the tour if one has tickets to a show. I probably would have skipped it in hindsight.






It was a warm day, and we ended it with a nice glass of the classic English Summer Drink, Pimm's, in a park near the theatre. A truly lovely day.