I have attended two performances at the reconstructed Shakespeare’s Globe. Let me say, the best view is an illusion. For our second performance, Comedy of Errors, we had traditional good seats: dead on the stage. However, there is the slight problem of the sun. Yes, the glorious day star which is notoriously bright shined right on us for the entire two hour performance from 2 until 4 pm. The Globe did not have a roof, so the sun shined right in. Sitting in the front row of the bay, I am pretty sure I got the beginnings of a tan (I definitely get the sweats). The sun hung just so in the sky where it created an awful glare for viewing the stage from dead on, and sadly, my sunglasses just made the whole thing worse.
Comedy of Errors is clearly an early Shakespeare play in script. A tedious repetitive script was expertly executed by a wonderful cast. At least, I think so. I was often distracted by trying to find a comfortable position and actually bring myself to stare at the stage despite the sun. My favorite part of the whole play isn’t even in the script. After the postponing of the beheading which opens the play, a marvelously rambunctious fight scene took over the stage. It was fun to see the actors run around the stage brandishing swords.
In defense of the seats, I could at least see when the balcony was employed during a short stint. It had been difficulty to watch the characters in the balcony in Act 5 of A Midsummer’s Night’s Dream from stage right.
The Globe theatre itself is beautiful. The heavens of the stage are beautifully painting. The base color is a deep blue more similar to the ocean than to navy. The sun adorns one corner and the moon the other. I had an amazing view to periodically gaze up and examine the ornately decorated roof of the stage during A Midsummer’s Night’s Dream. Brown marble columns dot the stage, and while they are detailed, they also somehow appear a cheap, plastic even. I loved seeing the decorated box seats on either side of the stage. These special boxes had seafoam green walls with mythological imagery in white and gold.
On the staging, A Midsummer’s Night’s Dream played better to the roughly 270 degrees of viewing that surrounds the stage. While I had trouble focusing due to the burning glare of the sun, Comedy of Errors seemed to have blocking which did not take the whole theatre in account. Even if I would have been able to see better in the side bay seats, I do not think I would have actually been able to see more of the story played out.
If the performances were anything like the two we saw, it would have been fun to be a groundling. The actors interacted with the audience without directly breaking the fourth wall. We, the audience, were brought into the story taking place on stage, none more so than the groundlings. Cast members came up through the audience to take their place in the scene. A baby crying taking away from the performance? Nah! The actors gracefully incorporate the nuisance into their performance as if this happens every show.
I will saw I liked the closed captions provided on two led screens during Comedy of Errors; it is hard to miss a word when the script is scrolling within your eyeline. Also, seeing Comedy of Errors is a much better experience than sludging through the script. Although, I do believe this to be true of every Shakespeare play no matter how good the script is.
Theatre in London U of A 