Shakespeare' s Globe Theatre in general

Here's what you have to do: Get yourself onto the London Underground network and take the Central Line to St Paul's. When you arrive there are signposts to direct you down to the Thames and across to the Globe Theatre. When you get to the river, just stop for a moment by the Millenium Footbridge and enjoy the view. Straight ahead of you is the towering phoenix of Tate Modern. If you've got a couple of hours to kill before your play starts, go in - it's free. Doesn't matter if you like or dislike modern art, the place is awesome, and there's a great cafe at the top where you can look out over the cityscape. To the left of the Tate is The Globe. ...  Read the complete review

I had never even heard of Timon of Athens before deciding to see it at the Globe. Not being a fan of Shakespeare's comedies and being offered a chance to go to the Globe I opted for this as the only other option currently available. I was worried that I wouldn't understand anything that was going on but found that I need not have worried. Admittedly I did read the synopsis on Wikipedia before I went but I think even without this I would have been fine. There were of course some sections of speeches that I didn't follow completely but it is a credit to the actors and the director (Lucy Bailey) that the majority of the story comes across clearly despite the ...  Read the complete review

At the very end of the 16th century, James Burbage was running a theatre company in Blackfrairs, London, of which William Shakespeare was then a member, an actor and a playwright of some renown, even in those days. Following James' death his two sons, as a result of a dispute over the lease of the theatre that they were then using, leased a plot in Southwark, south of the river Thames, on which to erect a new theatre. That theatre was the first Globe. It was close to the equally famous Rose Theatre, and rivalry between the two theatre companies was intense. That original Globe burned to the ground during a performance of Shakespeare's Henry VIII but, as ...  Read the complete review

When my daughter told me, earlier in the year, that A Midsummer Night’s Dream was one of the plays being produced at the Globe Theatre in London this year, to book tickets was a must. When she told me a few days later that there was to be a Midsummer Night’s performance at midnight, well, there was just no other date that we could book was there? Even though it had only just been announced that this performance was going to take place, tickets were in short supply. We managed to acquire two in the lower stand, on one side of the stage. We had a restricted view, but what the hell! To see A Midsummer Night’s Dream on Midsummer’s night ...  Read the complete review

When Sam Wannamaker's proposal to rebuild the Globe close to its original site was first mooted, I was dismissive of the idea. I thought that it would just be another ride in "England-Land", that commercial construction of a fantasy England, and a siren call intensifying that dread English desire to avoid the present by living in the past. What is more, I always thought that reconstructing Shakespeare in this way would have been an indication of a desire to pickle him - and you can only embalm the dead. When I saw a broadcast from the Globe after it had opened, I began to revise my opinion. When I actually went there, I blessed the memory ...  Read the complete review