Globe Theatre

It felt incredible to see a show in the Globe Theatre.  It didn’t really hit me in the gift shop, but once I walked into the actual theatre it immediately hit me just how amazing it was to be in this historic theatre.  I had seen pictures so nothing surprised me about the theatre itself but it was interesting to see the size of the crowd.  I had been debating with myself over if the globe would be packed or not because on the one hand it is the globe but on the other hand since they only do Shakespeare plays they will do the same show multiple times so maybe people wouldn’t go as much.  The place wasn’t completely packed, especially near the sides, but there was definitely a sizable crowd.  As for the show the first thing that caught my eye was the set which was very minimalistic.  There was a giant orange tree along the wall, two temporary railings on the pillars, and baskets of oranges around the pillars.  To say the performance exceeded my expectations would be understatement.  The actors were absolutely hilarious and made the Shakespearean text so clear.  The minimalist set worked so well because the actors used the space so well; however, I did expect that.  One thing I didn’t expect was the amount of crowd work.  There were tons of entrances and exits with the groundlings area along with many crowd interactions throughout the play.  This play very much differed from a contemporary production in America with the theatre and the set.  It also differed from how it would have been performed in Shakespeare’s day with the set and also the actors actually got into character instead of just saying the lines like they would have in Shakespeare’s day.  While there was a set it was very small which is similar to how there wouldn’t have been any set in Shakespeare’s day, another element that was similar was how the actors would talk to the audience during their soliloquies instead of just lookin out and up like most actors do now.