If you have spent any amount of time in a theatre department, you have likely wondered what it must have been like to experience Shakespearean theatre at the time of its production. Witnessing just how complicated modern productions, even ones of Shakespeare’s plays, can be, with hundreds of cues for lighting and sound, speaker systems and lighting rigs that can take days to set up, sets that in some cases could function as an actual house, leaves you questioning how it could have been done back in the day. What were the sets like? How were the characters costumed? How were the plays performed? What kind of instruments and music would have played during the shows?
Watching a show at Shakespeare’s Globe, in my mind, is the closest I have been to seeing a Shakespeare play done in the way that it would have been done back in its original times. Stepping into the Globe was a great feeling, even if it showed its cracks in its Elizabethan facade. The exterior shell of the theater was incredibly well recreated, with the exposed wooden supports and stark white cement walls, along with the thatched, slightly overgrown roof circling the stage. The open-air space was incredibly unique, giving a combination of an outdoor theater’s environment and atmosphere while allowing for more complexity in set and costume design. The decor around the theater was very nice, with the stage painted with stars and Roman deities, similar to what an Elizabethan audience member would have seen. There were a couple details that bugged me about the reconstruction, however, such as the concrete flooring that the Groundlings stood upon and how on the highest circle of the house, the balusters were flat rather than the more sculpted ones on the circle below it. These details, while they did remove me a bit from the authenticity of the experience, did not impact my perception of the performance at all. And it was quite a performance indeed.
I had already read the script for Much Ado About Nothing for class before we embarked on this trip, so going into the Globe’s production, I had some preconceptions and expectations for characters and how things would be done. I really enjoyed this script and while it is not my favorite Shakespeare script, I was really looking forward to seeing it performed. And after watching it, I definitely was not disappointed.
Seeing as the seats we had almost wrapped behind the stage, I decided to instead watch the show as a groundling, which was definitely a good choice in the long run, even if my legs later did not agree. The set was very minimal, but helped to showcase the design of the Globe while making it unique to this show through the golden orange trees hung in the back and the sparse furniture decorating the stage. The show was incredibly well performed, with a cast that knew exactly what they were doing with Shakespeare. The entire performance was incredibly fun and casual enough to fit the comedy of the show, with the actors putting emphasis and emotion on words in a way that recontextualizes them, where even if you had read the script before you the joke would land like new (an example of this was when Leonato speaks to Benedick, he emphasizes and draws out the “dick” part of his name). My favorite part of the experience was how the actors and the show played off of the audience, with characters delivering lines directly to audience members, interacting with people at the front of the stage by way of handing them props or involving them with a monologue, or just riding the energy of the crowd and letting it subtly influence how they deliver their lines. These elements of interactivity and casual fanfare feel like what theatre likely was back in Elizabethan times, with the actors taking the show seriously, of course (there were many times, especially in the later acts, where the scenes got much heavier), but focusing on the theatrics and entertainment value above all. From the beautifully ornate costuming to the relatable and witty performances to just the feeling of being so close to the stage as a groundling, this show may actually be my favorite experience watching theatre.
Theatre in London U of A 