A couple days ago we went back to Shakespeare’s Globe to see “Comedy of Errors”. Every time I see the globe I get shocked how small it actually is inside. This time we had a direct center view of the stage, and I honestly would’ve loved to have the seats we had last time. It was very sunny outside and throughout the play the sun was creeping up my leg. I was praying to God that it wouldn’t get higher than my knees because I was in a black top, and that would’ve ended badly. Last time the seats didn’t bother me, but this time I wish I bought the cushion. Now I know that if were return to the globe I would pay the three pounds for a tad more comfort.

“Comedy of Errors” to me was more enjoyable to watch than Midsummer. I laughed at the jokes more and enjoyed the characters a lot more. I did realize I was looking at the subtitles a lot. I wish I could’ve seen them during Midsummer, because it would have been more helpful in understanding some characters. The part that excited me most was the little fight scene in the beginning. It went on for like a good five minutes. The way it was blocked was so funny, there was so much happening and I was cackling through it all. The set was very simple, like most shows that they do. I did very much like how they would row people in on a wooden boat. Every time I wish I was in the lobby to see it from outside. The costumes also helped me distinguish who was who, which made it more clear on who was talking. Finally the best part…the wigs. My favorite wig was the blonde bob on this guy in the beginning. They had me laughing so hard, same with the guy with the brown bob. This production did live up to how I envisioned it on stage. The actors looked so similar to one another, and they did so well on keeping the same mannerisms alike.

I can’t imagine how they would’ve put this on in Shakespeare’s day. Would they know how to make things more funny? Would the costumes be as great? This is what trips me up when I see a play at the globe. How did they perform back then and make it good? The modernist that this show brings; at least to me, makes it more enjoyable to watch. This was one of my favorites to read and I’m so happy I got to see it being performed at the globe.

We had already been to a show in the Shakespeare Globe Theatre, but our afternoon watching The Comedy of Errors felt very different than before. First of all, I will never get tired of the Globe Theatre. It is possibly one of my favorite theatre venues I’ve been to, especially outdoor venues. The stage isn’t too high up, and the seating arrangement creates a very intimate space. And depending on your seat, you get a completely different view of the story and can sometimes witness things that you wouldn’t catch in another seat. While that may be upsetting, as you may miss something that everyone laughs at, it creates the intimate moments that make theatre so fun.

My favorite example of this was from when we saw Midsummer, and one of the characters who was playing a lion turned to face us and made a specific face of pride before turning to the back of the stage. Only our side of the theatre witnessed this moment, and my description of the moment doesn’t do their performance justice. But the moment was hilarious nonetheless.

Now, A Comedy of Errors is not my favorite show. The script itself is very slapstick and can be extremely confusing to explain and follow. I think the cast did a great job at bringing these scenes to life, and the direction and costumes really helped tell the story. The casting of the two sets of twins was very good as they really resembled each other while not being related. The costumes for the twins were also identical, which helped sell their similarities. It did make the first introduction of both sets of twins confusing, as I talked to a few people who thought the same actors were playing both roles.

But, this specific show had its downsides that were not at fault to the production or cast itself. We just so happened to have very bad luck with outside disruptions. This specific show had subtitled captions that were displayed on screens on each side of the stage. While this was helpful because of the location of our seats and the confusing plot, it became very distracting. I found myself watching the screen to follow along more than I was watching the stage. Because we were seated in the middle section of seats in comparison to the left like we were for Midsummer, we were much further away from the stage itself. The actors on stage didn’t have microphones for the production, so the distance made it harder to hear them if they weren’t facing us.

To make matters worse, there were so many distractions throughout the show that made it much more difficult to hear them. Between the screaming, and I mean screaming, child and the groups of people who wouldn’t stop talking, I was not focused on the show at all. A child was screaming “I want to go home” very loudly throughout the first scene, which explains all of the backstory and character origins of the two sets of twins. Throughout the entire show, there were at least four helicopters and possibly more than two or three airplanes that went directly over the stage. We also had the luxury of sitting near groups of people who complained and expressed themselves very loudly.

The group of older women in front of us were complaining about the sun, which is another distraction we encountered, and a group of men to our right were just very rowdy. The show was a matinee, so the sun was nearing its peak when the show began. For the last half of the show, we all pretty much had every article of clothing covering our arms and legs to shield them from the sun. I’m just glad I wore my sunscreen. But possibly the worst distraction was the man a few seats away from me who had decided it was appropriate to take off his shoes and socks for the entire show. His bare feet sliding across the wooden floors of the theatre were enough to send goosebumps down my spine and an ache in my stomach.

The show, under normal circumstances, is probably fantastic. I think the acting was phenomenal, and the comedy landed most of the time (if I was able to hear it). But, the experience of that particular show was not as memorable, for the right reasons, as A Midsummer Night’s Dream. I still love the Globe Theatre and wish I could come back. I would love to see Romeo and Juliet performed here as I know I’d be able to understand Shakespeare’s style more. I love the Globe, and I hope to be able to return someday and give A Comedy of Errors another chance.

1. Day Trip to Spitalfields Market.
2. Tried a burrito bowl this time, too spicy for my taste but it was okay. 
3. Tried Humble Crumble, yummy but hit my tummy like a ton of bricks. 
4. Tried to find iced tea, couldn’t find it anywhere, but they had enough hot tea, coffee, and boba to nourish an army. 
5. Finally made it into the gift shop at Shakespeare’s Globe. 
6. Got to see a replica of the Globe made out of legos, see one of the first folios, sit in a coronation chair, and see a Queen Elizabeth I costume from the 90’s. 
7. Watched Comedy of Errors while baking in the sun. 
8. Giant Group Dinner before our free weekend and traveling to Amsterdam. 
9. Headed out for karaoke night, had a blast singing and sweating our butts off. 
10. Slept for a little and then headed for the Airport!

Comedy of Errors was not my favorite play when we read it in class, so I was most looking forward to how they would be handling all of the fight choreography, all of the boats, and then potential doubling as we have seen that a lot already. I was pleasantly surprised when we walked in to see that they had screens that were showing exactly what the actors were saying mounted around the globe. I thought that would be a fun and simple way for a lot of people to understand more of what was happening, since sometimes it is hard to understand Shakespeare especially if you haven’t read it before seeing it. And these screens can help people with hearing deficiencies or people who have hard time understanding the accents. I think that the screens helped to an extent but they also hendered as well. As I found myself watching the screen a lot and forgetting to watch on stage. I had to keep reminding myself to look at what was happening and not be so worried about the text, that I had already read. 

For the stage combat, I loved it! They had a lot of it! I personally felt like the introduction fight scene, which was just a lot of the townspeople fighting with each other before the Duke comes in to announce who will be beheaded that day, was a lot and maybe not necessary. But if the message they were going for was to show a town in complete chaos and at the complete mercy of their Duke, then they achieved that. I do think it came a little out of left field, but it warmed up the audience for the rest of the slapping and punching that was going to be coming later in the show. 

Every stage punch, slap, or hit that was performed was accompanied by a stick being slapped together by a member of the band that was above, I think this really played into the comedy and slapstick (literally) comedy that Shakespeare was going for. And it not only shocked the audience but made us giggle. I was impressed by how on time the band member was every single time! He did not miss a sound cue by a second, he was spot on!

The boats that came in through the audience was also a really fun add on that I enjoyed, I think this really played into the audience involvement. Which seems to be a recurring theme in the shows that we have been seeing at The Globe. If there is a subtle way to involve the audience they will, whether that is addressing sounds that come from audience members, actors exiting or entering from the audience, or simply addressing them directly. I think this really added to the experience and made it feel like we were a part of Ephesus and watching this all unfold around us, which I really think gave a somewhat lackluster play more pizazz. 

I believe that all of the involvement with the audience, band, and even the weather is exactly what it would feel like going to see a show back in the day. It was an event and everyone treated it as such, I’d like to think Shakespeare would approve of what is being done to his work and theatre.

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.

I really enjoyed going to Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre to see A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Comedy of Errors! I enjoyed the plays a lot more than I thought I would, I have never been big Shakespeare fan because I get confused when trying to read and understand the language, but watching the plays are so much different which I think made them much more enjoyable for me I finally understood what was happening because I could see it happening instead of just guessing what was happening while reading words I didn’t know the meaning of. 

I also really liked the design elements of the space, the stage was beautiful, I liked the balcony where the musicians played and the 3 couples watched the play in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, I loved the pillars (except when I couldn’t see around them in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, until I moved) I thought that the ceiling was very creative because it looked like you were looking up into the sky and could see consultations and what I think to be some of the zodiac signs. I love the idea of the open space theatre like the one in Regents Park, and I like the idea to perform the plays during the day so you can use the natural light. The only downside to using the natural light as an audience member is that I had the sun straight in my eyes for most of Comedy of Errors, I think because I had the sun in my eyes and I was very uncomfortably warm that made the show a little less enjoyable for me. That being said I still think it was a great production and I really enjoyed the show. Another thing I thought was interesting was that everyone was double casted in both shows, I loved trying to figure out who was who and which characters that they played. Also, I enjoyed how the characters would interact with the audience and leave the stage and move around in the standing room section. 

I felt very lucky to be able to see these shows in such a historic place that has been around for such a long time, sure the seats were very uncomfortable and left me sore for a few hours after the show, and standing would probably be just as bad, but I got to see a few productions that pleasantly surprised me. Back in Fayetteville when we had to read Comedy of Errors and write a scene analysis, I think that helped me understand this play a lot more. Overall, I really liked seeing the plays at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre much more than I thought. I would recommend that anyone go see a play there even if you don’t like Shakespeare that much, just go for the experience and to see such a cool and historic theatre space.