The Globe was an amazing experience! Walking up to it feels truly like going back in time. I’ve been noticing that a lot about London as a whole. While it is absolutely a city that is in the 21st century complete with glass skyscrapers galore, there are pockets of old buildings peppering the streets to remind you that this city has existed for millenia.
The Globe theatre that we get to go to today is not the original Globe; that one burned down in the early 1600s. It was rebuilt shortly thereafter, but got torn down in the 1640s when the Puritans decided that fun was no longer allowed in England. However, this 1997 building (only one year older than me!) is about as close to an exact replica as one can find. It was constructed with the same sorts of materials, wood and plaster, and even has a thatched roof. They had to have special permission to use this roofing material due to its highly flammable nature (hence the burning down thing), and it is the only building in London to have a thatched roof.
I’ve had the good fortune of going to The Globe once before, about nine years ago. I remember, even then as a baby theatre nerd, the feeling of being somewhere so much greater than myself or any of the artists who have passed through those hallowed stalls. We saw The Taming of the Shrew on that trip, and, though I had trouble with the language, I sat in awe of the space I got to inhabit for those short few hours. I felt the same way, though I had much less trouble with the language, while watching the production of Romeo and Juliet that we got to attend.
The space itself is exactly as pictures make it look. It is a deep thrust stage (so deep that the farthest seats to either side get a view of backstage) with raked wooden benches around the outer perimeter, about five rows deep. There’s a first and second mezzanine with a similar bench setup. None of the benches have backs, but thankfully we were sat in the last row and so had a wall to lean up against behind us. I also spent the £3 to rent a cushion and was very thankful to have made that choice. Most of the ground floor audience space is left for the groundlings, standing room only. There were several folks from our group who decided to watch the three hour show from the ground; they’re much braver than I!
The show itself was incredibly enjoyable. It was Romeo and Juliet set in the Wild West! I actually think that the concept worked. The team was able to incorporate the imagery and attitude of the Wild West in a way that a) didn’t just feel slapped on top of the text and b) didn’t feel like it was forcing the text to tell a different story. As an American, it was a little funny to see folks in Wild West getup speak with all varieties of UK accents, but I’m glad they didn’t try to do American accents.
Overall, I thought the actors were incredibly strong. At times I had trouble hearing certain actors, especially the Capulet parents who I thought were two of the weaker performances in the production. Mercutio, the Nurse, and Peter all did a great job as comic relief. Overall, that was something that I really enjoyed about this production. I think that it is incredibly easy to take a Shakespearean tragedy too seriously, but this crew did a wonderful job of lifting the humor along with the tragedy. Romeo used the language well and felt locked into the given circumstances, especially in scenes with Juliet. In my opinion, Juliet was absolutely the standout of this production. She did a great job at staying true to the fact that Juliet is only 13 in this story, and the way she used the language taught me so many new things about this play that I have been familiar with for over a decade. Overall, definitely recommend this production to Shakespeare lovers and non lovers alike!
Theatre in London U of A 