The Globe Theatre

Now that I've been back a few days, I wanted to post the pictures from our last full day in London, and from the morning that we left.  We had a full day of activities, that began with a tour of the Globe Theatre.  The theatre itself was absolutely wonderful . . . our tour guide, on the other hand, was the worst that we had on the trip.  Based on the information she passed along, some of which I will share below, she was accustomed to giving tours to high school students who had absolutely no interest in the tour.  She used the kind of scatological details that one utilizes when having to teach say--a senior level English class full of football players and cheerleaders who have no interest in A Man for All Seasons, but have to have the English credit to graduate from high school.  Hmmm.  Wonder about the origin of that example.

The theatre is located on the Thames as it was in Shakespeare's time.  In the day, however, the theatre was located about 100 yards from its present location.  At that time, the Thames had not been tamed by the "artificial" concrete banks that maintain its current course; consequently, it was much wider.

The Globe is generally thought to be a round theatre.  Actually it is twenty-sided.

The Bard Himself.

We arrived at 8:45 in the morning so that we could take the first tour.  The theatre opened at 9:00, and we had an hour to tour the "gallery" before our tour at 10:00.  Given our tour guide, this was easily the most interesting part of the visit.

Loved this set of steps in the gallery shaped like a amphitheater.

This costume was made for the actress who played Queen Elizabeth I in the specially written theatrical work written for the grand re-opening of the rebuilt Globe Theatre.

Our guide explained to us that Shakespeare in Love was fictional--that QEI would never have attended the theatre during her reign because of its terrible reputation.  We were shocked to learn that SiL wasn't a documentary.

Although QEI wouldn't cross the river to attend theatrical events, she did attend Bear Baitings, which also occurred across the river.  Evidently, she didn't like prostitutes, but she was a tremendous fan of bear torture.  In this photograph, Carl is rehearsing Romeo's speech from Romeo and Juliet.  As he begins the line, "But soft!  What light through yonder window breaks?  It is the East and Juliet is the sun!" a baited bear materialized behind him.

Fortunately, Jordan was standing close by, and seeing Carl in trouble, she rushed to his rescue.  Because they had the same color hair, she was able to reason with him.

The stage of the Globe, set for As You Like It.  As our tour guide explained, this stage decoration was not used in Shakespeare's day.  (We were all just thinking how well these fake leaves and oranges had held up.)  The only way the folks knew where they were (i.e., the setting of the play) was through what they heard--Verona, an English Palace, Padua all looked the same.

Look, Groundlings!  As our guide explained, they were also referred to as the Stinking Masses because they smelled so badly.  She went on to explain that QEI was thought a radical and a health nut because she bathed four times a year, whereas they, generally, bathed only twice a year if that often.  Note the twins just beyond the man in the red jacket.  It's truly odd and amazing how often they stand in mirror image to one another.

At the top of this picture you can see the window from which cannons were fired in Shakespeare's day as sound effects for the theatre.  Evidently, according to our tour guide, the original Globe burned to the ground because one of the "technicians" fired an actual canon during a performance that ignited the thatch roof.

A shot of the ceiling of the stage.  As our tour guide explained, "they were painted as the heavens because actors (my note: though they needed no mimetic scenery) would have actual stars to point to if they were doing a speech about stars.  You know, for inspiration."  She was making it up as she went along.

Maybe you can tell from this picture that there were several tours, many for high school and grade school students, taking place at the same time.  A picture of the galleries from the floor of the theatre.  

Picture taken from the second level of the gallery.  The worst seats in the house were actually the most expensive because, to the Elizabethans, one didn't go to the theatre to see, one went to be seen.  The most expensive seats in the house were actually on the stage.

While we were sitting here, our tour guide explained that bathrooms were non-existent during Elizabethan times, so the groundlings actually "went where they stood."  The nobles and merchants who attended the theatre were not so base.  As she explained, "they used the stairwells."

Another gem, "Everything that you see is as it was during Shakespeare's time, except the lights.  They didn't have lights.  They didn't have the green exit signs either . . . or toilets."