|
|
New Globe Playhouse
|
|
The Story
|
|
When the
American actor Sam
Wanamaker visited London after World War II, he looked on Bankside for
the splendid memorial to the birthplace of the greatest plays in the
English language, and found nothing but this plaque on the wall of a
brewery on Park Street in Southwark.
When he came
to live in London
in the early fifties he started a campaign to recreate the Globe. Over
forty years later his dream was fulfilled though sadly he didn't live
to see it completed. Shakespeare's Globe now stands on the Bankside of
the river Thames close to the site of the original, and every summer
since 1997 we have experienced Shakespeare's genius in the setting for
which it was intended. Each summer Shakepeare's Globe stages a
season of the Bard's plays often with works by other playwrights old
and new. I've produced a
of every season with links to the plays performed. I have reviewed
most that I've seen and described others that I haven't. When a new season
is announced I add to the list with previews.
In 2005
Shakespeare's Globe published a
showing a day in the life of the Globe, and a
brief history of how it came to be built. Gaynor bought it for my
birthday. It starts with a history of how Sam Wanamaker managed
to get the Globe built, but goes on to show how the Globe brings in
young people on a daily basis to give them an experience of theatre and
of Shakespeare. Another major strand in the movie stars Jamie
Garnon, who played Mercutio in the 2004 production of
.
He talks us through an actor's day at the Globe, backstage, in
rehearsal, and in performance of that play. This was particularly
interesting to me as I saw this production three times, once 'straight'
at the Globe, once in an original pronunciation performance, and again
in the Great Hall at Hampton Court. As a regular playgoer at the
Globe I loved this inside view of the theatre, and after watching the
DVD Gaynor too wanted to see a play there.
|
| |
The Building
|
|
|
The reconstructed Globe was built wherever possible
using the same methods and materials that were used in the original
building. The shell is not circular, but made up of twenty straight
sides. Making a circular building from oak tree trunks would be very
hard work! Based upon a brick foundation, twenty huge oak timbers
thirty two feet high form the skeletal frame of the building. To these
are fixed oak frames and timbers with mortice and tenon joints, locked
together with over 6000 tapered wooden pegs.
|
|
The walls are infilled with oak staves and laths,
covered in several layers of plaster. One of the few changes from the
ingredients used in the original is the make up of the plaster. The
Elizabethan recipe used sand, slaked lime and cow hair. British cattle
nowadays have hair too short for this purpose, and goat hair was used
instead. Also modern fire regulations required a fire-proof sheet to be
sealed in the wall. We don't want a repeat performance of the
1613
disaster, do we?
|
Artistic Directors
|
|
The charismatic actor Mark Rylance was the Artistic
Director of the Globe for nearly ten years, but he said at the start of
2005 that that would be his last season as director. In May 2005
Dominic Dromgoole, artistic director of the Oxford Stage Company since
1998, was appointed to take over. Dromgoole was then a 40 year
old stage director with controversial views on playwrights and current
theatrical practice. His 2000 book
The Full Room
is a series of essays about
contemporary playwrights. I guess that it was in that book that
he described Sir Tom Stoppard as 'a lunatic' and David
Hare as 'a flat writer'. He has been described as 'one of the most controversial
rising stars of the theatre'.
"'Hold on to your seatbelts, it's going to be a bumpy
night' at Shakespeare's Globe!" is what I said when I heard the news,
even though I looked forward with eager anticipation to the new era.
The Globe productions under his leadership have been very
good so far. Fewer experiments such as boys playing women as in Shakespeare's day
which were interesting, but somewhat distracting. More new plays which would be
good if they were more often successful. Howard Brenton's
is one rare exception.
|
Links
|
Internal
|
Original Globe
|
|
|
| |
In 1598 Shakespeare's acting company carried the timbers
from the dismantled Theatre across the Thames to Bankside.
There they used the timbers as the frame of their new playhouse
they called the Globe. In 1613 it burnt down but they
again rebuilt it. For more details click on the link.
|
New Globe
|
|
|
| |
The American actor Sam Wanamaker worked
hard for decades to make the new Globe a reality,
but he didn't live to see it built. Here's the story
of how the new Shakespeare's Globe came to be built
on London's Bankside in the 1990's
|
|
|
| |
A list of links to details and my reviews of every season since
1997 at Shakespeare's Globe
|
| |
Globe Main
|
|
|
| |
Recommended Books
|
|
|
| |
My list of recommended books about the Globe,
the Rose and other playhouses of the time may be found in the
section of the Well Furlong
.
If you so wish, you may go on to buy many of the volumes in our Book
Shop directly from Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk.
|
External
|
|
|
| |
The official Shakespeare's Globe site
|
|
|
|
Gaynor bought me this DVD
for my birthday in 2005 and we both enjoyed it. As a regular playgoer to
the Globe I found its behind the scenes sequences fascinating.
Jamie Garnon shows us a day in his life as an actor at the Globe. He
memorably played Mercutio in
in the 2004 season, and in 2011 plays Parolles in
.
The history of Shakespeare's Globe is told, and the
directors of music and costume talk about their work.
For more information or to buy this DVD from amazon.co.uk
click on the picture to the left.
|
| |
|
| |
| |
|
|||||
|
| |
Updated 25th November 2011
|
|