Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre - London trip

Report from visit: The Globe is a very similar replica of Shakespeare’s actual theatre, called the Globe. William Shakespeare started off as an actor in the company, and invested in the theatre. This is why he never left it, and why The Globe is so closely linked to the author. The Globe was a round, roofless theatre. The seating area was divided into three stories, and the nicest and most expensive seats used to be the ones closest to the stage. This is because they could hear the play very well, even though they couldn’t see the stage. The stage was very beautiful and colourful, and the ceiling was especially decorated because it was supposed to be the heavens. The floor of the stage was painted in more earthy colours, and had a latch in it of which the “devil” would emerge out. 

The globe was situated outside of the actual city because of Oliver Cromwell and the puritans who were in charge. They wanted to shut it down, but because the queen liked their plays, the theatre survived. We learned that in order to create special effects, such as sounds, people would hilde back stage and use props to make the sounds. For instance, they would wave a metal sheet for the sound of thunder, or spin a special wheel that sounded like the wind. We were told a story by our guide about how thew one wanted to create an extra booming sound of thunder by firing a canon, and set the theatre on fire by doing so. I thought this was very interesting!

 I also was intrigued by how they set up a show every single night, meaning that they would have to repeat the samen ones lots of times. Sometimes, the audience would even make them change it, because the wanted to see a different one! This is very different from how theatres work today, when they spend months or years preparing fro one show and then perform the same one every night for weeks.