St. Paul’s and a Dream

For our first Saturday in London, we had two items on the agenda: St. Paul’s Cathedral and A Midsummer’s Night’s Dream in the rebuilt Globe Theatre.

St. Paul’s Cathedral is a beautiful looming building just off of the River Thames. Walking to the church from the Tube stop, we passed Paternoster Row. I was excited to find this street as 13 Paternoster Row is a location the Doctor visits in Victorian London in the show Doctor Who.

At St. Paul’s we were shown around by our London certified tour guide, Molly. She told us about the history of the site of the church, the building of the church, and the monuments throughout. At 11, a priest came and led a prayer. In the back of the church, there is a room called the American Chapel which honors Americans who fought in WWII and has symbols for all the states in the stained glass. The ceilings are arched and ornately decorated throughout. Underneath the main floor is the crypt with graves ranging from simple stone inscriptions on the floor to an entire sarcophagus.

 A group of us hiked to the tippy top of the cathedral (an almost 600 step trek). There is Whispering Gallery where your whisper bounces back to you and which overlooks the main sanctuary area, but it was sadly closed so I did not get to actually test it out. The first set of stairs is the same for going up and going down and are quite wide. Once you get past these stairs, the rest of the staircases are so narrow you cannot turn around with a set of stairs for the upward journey and a set for the downward journey. There was a deck that was surrounded with tall stone pillars and overlooked the city which reminded me of looking out at Dallas from Reunion Tower. Here you could decided if you truly wished to go to the top. I accepted the challenge. Although, I did not know what I was getting into with the last set of stairs. I had to make my way up a very narrow black spiral metal staircase; then, I made my way up a short stone staircase that I could not stand up in. While these last stairs (especially the spiral staircases) had me doubting the last of my quest, I was rewarded with an amazing eagle eye view of London. I was awed to look out from what much be one of the highest points in the city. I am so glad that I braved the many stairs for that view!

From St. Paul’s, we went across the Millennium Bridge and arrived at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre. The theatre was rebuilt using old plans in the 1990s by an American and is the only building in London approved for a thatched roof. A Midsummer’s Night’s Dream was a very enjoyable performance. After watching it, I gained a greater understanding for the play itself.

We sat off to stage right but had a great view as the play was stage to take advantage of the globe. The actors frequently would turn their backs on the audience directly in front of them and I was able to see their entire face. The play opened with an exciting prologue dance full of pomp. Throughout the play, music was a character enhancing the actors’ performances and subtly changing the scenes. Sometimes the actors would come onto the stage through the audience making it an immersive experience. When Demetrius was in the forest with Helena, he was looking intently for Hermia; at one point, it felt like he was looking right at me.

All of the actors, except the six playing the four lovers, Robin/Puck, and Bottom, played an Athenian and a fairy which gave a more fanciful dream-like quality to the reading of the play. The production felt like a wonderful blend of Elizabethan and modern. One of my favorite aspects was when Titania falls asleep, a rope net was hung from the Heavens (the balcony on the stage) to Hell (the trapdoors of the stage) for her to lie in. This was a clever way to keep her very present onstage but out of the way as the drama between the four Athenian youths plays out.

The play concluded with a choreographed dance between all of the actors. It was a fun experience to sit and clap along with the audience while the actors swung around on stage. We don’t always think of it this way, but productions during Shakespeare’s day were full of music and dance. I really loved getting to see a play, especially a comedy, full realized with the music and dance elements. At one point even, music that felt like it should be at a club came on when only Puck was on stage. The actress completely broke the fourth wall and encouraged the groundlings to mosh around, “up, down, up, down” like they were under her control. The production leaned into the magic of fairy-land with amazing planning to have the actors seem like they were truly being controlled by Puck.

This was really an incredible day full of amazing experiences! 🙂

p.s. I did have the urge to get up on stage at the globe and yell, “Expelliarmus!” in the vain of David Tennant and Freema Agyeman in the series 3 episode The Shakespeare Code of Doctor Who which did film some scenes at the rebuilt Globe Theatre.