Cultural Experiences: Shakespeare's Globe Theatre

On Friday, I was lucky enough to be invited by a friend to go on a tour of Shakespeare's Globe theatre. It was so great - he had been gifted a 2-person voucher from an Aussie teaching friend, which was due to expire, and he invited me, which was super lovely. So thanks to them both!

I had walked past the Globe, looked at the shows which were on, but I hadn't actually been inside yet. It's very cool. That being said, I should start by saying it's not the first Globe. It's actually the third... The first burned down (a cannon fire noise, made by firing a blank out of an actual cannon, sent out sparks which set the roof on fire), and the second was closed by the government (boo government!), so this is the third Globe. It was designed by the American actor and director Sam Wanamaker (father of actress Zoe Wanamaker, who played Madame Hooch in Harry Potter and the mother in the sitcom My Family) based on the original Globe design. It was finally completed 4 years after he died in 1997, which was very sad for Sam to not survive to see his vision.

The tour was very interesting too. I had thought it would be quite short, but it was about an hour all up which was a good length. We stopped outside the theatre first, to talk about the origin of the theatre and what London was like in the 1600s (not south of the river, for starters) and where the original site was (part of Southwark Bridge now goes over about half of the original site). Second stop was the pit where the 'penny stinkers' stood, where we talked about how gross it would be then! Drinking beer, not washing, using the floor as the bathroom, being all squished in... Ew. Apparently the theatre, which now holds about 700 people for each performance, held about 1500 in the same space back in Shakespeare's time!

Stop 3 of the tour was in the more expensive seats (cost 2 pennies instead of 1 to stand on the floor), where we got a better look at the stage and talked about other aspects of staging, like making sound effects! Then it was back outside to talk about shows in the winter. Turns out the Globe only runs shows in the Globe theatre between April and October due to weather and light (it doesn't have a roof, you see). The rest of the year they have smaller plays in the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse next door, which seats only 200 people and has a stage lit by candlelight. Sounds very cool.

One highlight of the tour was actually not a part of it, either. There were actors on the stage practising their fight choreography, which was very cool to watch. I do want to get to a show before the close of the season - apparently it's not that hard to get 5 pound standing tickets to some shows! I just need to find the time...