Around the Globe

The Globe Theatre, that is. The self-same Globe Theatre in which William Shakespeare performed as an actor and in which his plays were first performed. Or, at least, as close to the original as is possible to get, given an occasional nod to modern safety concerns. For example, that structure you see jutting out from the circular shape of the building is a staircase. For access to the upper levels of the theatre. In the original, there was but one. In this, the modern reconstruction, there are two. For safety's sake.



That is a thatched roof. It is the only thatched roof building in London, and special exemptions to existing laws about such things (London burned to the ground a few hundred years ago and thatched roofs were outlawed in the city, subsequently) were granted in order to allow the building to be built. By Sam Wanamaker, the American actor and director. And friends. Anyway, there is a sprinkler system in the thatching - also a concession to modern safety concerns. The walls are plastered using the same technique developed in medieval times, using lime and animal hair and all kinds of other stuff, the theory being, since the medieval stuff doesn't crack (there are buildings from the 15th and 16th century in England with ORIGINAL EXTERIOR plastering) why not do it the way they did.

We attended an hour and a half workshop at the Globe. Conducted by the actor you see facing the crowd in the next picture. He has the hat.



In this workshop, we learned some interesting and, frankly, amazing things.

Notice, please, the shape of the stage.



There is no procenium. It is almost, in fact, theater in the round. But there is no scenery, no wings right and left and no footlighting. No lighting of any sort, in fact. As it is understood now, in Shakespeare's time, plays were given during the day - they think 3 o'clock in the afternoon. No one really knows, for sure. But given that they had no electricity and no reliable form of artificial lighting that wouldn't burn the place down, that's the current thinking.

Think of the word 'audience'. The roots of the word mean 'to hear'. Not see. Hear. In Willy's time, you didn't go to 'see' a play, there was almost nothing to 'see'. There were no sets. There was little staging. Actors came on the stage, said their lines, and left. You went to 'hear' a play. And it was 'play'. What went on in Willy's time was roughly equivalent to a Rap session. Shakespeare wrote much of his work in iambic pentameter. The stuff of poetry. The 'rap' of its day.

All of the actors were men. Women were not allowed on the stage. So women's parts were portrayed by young boys and men. Dressed as women. None of Shakespeare's plays call for kissing. If men were to kiss, on stage, the Puritans, who were 'in charge' in England at the time, would have run them out of town - at least. So Willy was forced to WRITE the passion into the script, because that passion could not be portrayed, physically, on the stage. And he became the greatest writer in the English language - because men could not and would not kiss on the stage.



The 'cheap seats' were on the ground floor. It cost the equivalent of a weeks' wages to stand and hear a play, for some. A bargain at twice the price.