Submitted by Cassandra Simons on the 2012 summer session program in London sponsored by the Department of English…
On our third week in London, we visited the Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre and the famous town of Canterbury. Having taken two theatre classes which focused on Shakespeare’s Playing Company, the Globe Theatre has always been the main image that I think of when Elizabethan theatre is mentioned. The Globe Theatre that stands in London next to the Tate Museum today is the third of its kind. The original Globe was built in 1599 and burned in the Great Fire of London in 1613. It was rebuilt a few years later and was subsequently closed down by the Puritans in 1642.
I was shocked to find that the third Globe was not built until 1996, when American actor and director Sam Wanamaker came to London to revive the theatrical landmark. It was very surprising to me that the people of London had not yet rebuilt the Globe because of their usual emphasis on heritage. When I walked down the Thames drawing closer to the new Globe Theatre, it looked just as historic to me as Westminster Abbey. Hearing that the year of its resurrection was 1996 was a little bit disheartening because it looked so impressively old from a distance.
As we moved on to tour the open-air Globe Theatre, I was thrilled to find that there was a rehearsal for The Taming of the Shrew being held. We were allowed to watch the beginning scenes of the play from the balcony section of the theatre where middle class Elizabethans would have sat. I found it interesting that the new Globe Theatre kept to the exact same design as Shakespeare’s original. In the interest of providing a comfortable viewing area, I would have changed the standing area to a series of bench seats, and perhaps included a plexi-glass roof of some type for the floor level seats. I would love to go to a play at the Globe, but I’m not sure that I would enjoy standing for upwards of 2 hours in order to see the whole performance. Although the design may not be the most comfortable, the acoustics in the theatre were excellent, and it was exciting to watch the beautifully dressed actors perform from the breezy balcony seats. From the goat hair walls to the thatched roof, Shakespeare’s Globe is certainly a beautiful venue to see a great play.