On the hottest day of the year so far, I made my way up to London to pay a visit behind the scenes at Shakespeare’s Globe on an organised tour.
Not One, Not Two but Three
This isn’t, in fact, the first Globe (how could it be?), but the third theatre on the banks of the Thames to bear that name. The roots of The Globe are in a theatre called “The Theatre,” the first permanent theatre built exclusively for the showing of theatrical productions in England. After a dispute with the landlord when the rent was doubled from £12 to £24 a year, the theatre was dismantled, ferried across to the other bank of the Thames, reconstructed, and renamed as The Globe.
The next Globe carried on until it burned down when a stunt during a production caused a spark to set light to the thatched roof.
A Near Perfect Recreation
The Globe that I was visiting was opened in 1997 but couldn’t be built on the original spot. I guess that the owners of the flats there would have objected, and so it was built 600 yards away in a prominent position overlooking the Thames on the Southbank.
It seems, to me, to be an almost perfect recreation of the original Globe; however, we were told by our guide that no plans or pictures exist of the Globe, so there is a large dose of artistic licence at work here. It has been built using the same materials and methods as would have been used for the original. Therefore, it has a timber frame held together with wooden pegs and is the only thatched roof in the City of London. Apparently, the thatch is supposed to be changed every ten years, but a lack of funds means that it has been up for 12. This situation is not helped by the fact that to rethatch the building means shutting down for an entire summer season.
The Globe is pretty small, and so the tour really only takes place in three locations: just outside the building, in the benched seating area, and finally on the ground floor where the penny-stinkers would stand to watch. While we were there the stage was being changed for that afternoon’s performance of A Midsummer Night’s Dream after which it would then be changed again for the evening’s performance of Mother Courage and Her Children.
It was an interesting insight into the background to the theatre, and good to be able to see it from various angles. It was also good to see it in the sunshine, as the only time I’d been before, in 2017 for a performance of Twelfth Night, it was raining.
After my visit, I walked around the corner to see the site of the original Globe, but all that there is now is a plaque and four information panels. It’s not much to see, and you are better off sticking to the reproduction.
