London, Day 7: The Globe

Along the River Thames stands the Globe Theatre, where Shakespeare's plays were once performed. Of course, this is not the original Globe, but a modern reconstruction, finished in 1997. It is true to the original--as true as can be when no blueprints or drawings survive and when modern fire codes prohibit certain features of the old building. The new Globe does have a thatched roof. While this was common in earlier times, London has not permitted this sort of roof since the 17th century, mostly due to the fire hazard. After all, the first Globe burned to the ground during a play because the roof caught fire from a cannon shot. The city required the building to have sprinklers to wet the thatch in case of an emergency. Still, despite the occasional anachronism, the theater is an interesting and reasonably accurate. There is even a yard in front of the stage for part of the audience to stand--these were the cheap seats back in Shakespeare's time. Well, not seats, I guess. Fortunately, we'll be sitting rather than standing. This has the added advantage of being in a covered area, unlike the yard. So when it rains, we won't get too wet.

This morning, the entire class went to a workshop at the Globe. It included an introduction to the building itself--we were taken inside and a bit about the structure and construction of the theater was explained. Then we all went inside, where our guide, professional actor and director Nick Hutchison, told us about the ways in which theater was different back then. For starters, they performed a different play each day, given that there wasn't an influx of new people into London ("There weren't busloads of American and Japanese tourists keeping your theater afloat"). This means that they had a few days to learn their lines and just three hours each morning to rehearse a three-hour play. Additionally, no one wanted to write out the entire script 20 times, so each actor received only their lines and the three words before their lines as a cue. These lines are written on a scroll which is rolled up, and are only part of the play (hence, apparently, "role" and "part"). There really aren't stage directions, either. So these performers go out, not knowing the details of the play, and perform it. Many of the stage directions and settings are given in the lines. When a character talks about it being night or dawn, it's because there's no lighting to indicate time of day (plays were performed in the daytime, and lighting would most likely have caused the Globe to burn down even earlier than it did). And if the character says, "Bring me the book in the orchard," it tells the other actor to bring a book, and it tells the audience that the setting is an orchard. Rather clever. It does mean that the actors have to be very quick on their toes, because they don't know when their cue line is coming, and they have to react quickly to stage directions in another character's lines. Furthermore, if the script calls for one character to hit another, the hittee might not know it's coming. I guess that results in a very authentic performance. Ouch!

We'll be seeing a play in the Globe tomorrow night. They cram a lot of people into that little theater--though only half as many as would have been there in Shakespeare's time. Speaking of crammed, the tube was absolutely packed on the way to the Globe. It's been awhile since I last played Sardines. I wasn't exactly hoping to ever have to do it again.