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Who was William Shakespeare?
Renowned around the world as the greatest playwright of all
time, William Shakespeare came to London in from his
hometown of Stratford-Upon-Avon in the 1680s to make
his fortune. Legend has it that his first contact with the
theatre was as a handy man and that one of his tasks was to
look after the horses of wealthy patrons attending the theatre.
He wasn't doing such menial tasks for long however and by
the 1590s Shakespeare had firmly established himself in the
theatre world. During the second half of the 16th century,
William Shakespeare went on to write some of the greatest
literary works in the English language with poetry and plays
including Romeo and Juliet, A Midsummer Night's Dream,
Othello and Hamlet.
Shakespeare's Globe Theatre
The Globe Theatre was closely tied to the Bard's fortunes
and staged the majority of his most famous plays. It was built
in 1599 by Shakespeare's long-standing associate Cuthbert
Burbage, brother of the most famous Shakespearean actor
of the Elizabethan age, Richard Burbage, who played his greatest
characters including Hamlet, Othello and King Lear. In 1597
Burbage had inherited another London theatre in the north
- known simply as 'The Theatre' - as well as an associated
problem; although the edifice belonged to him the land it
was leased on didn't. To circumvent the problem he simply
pulled it down and used the materials to construct the Globe
on the Bankside of the river in 1598.
The Globe, an open-air octagonal amphitheatre which could
seat 2-3,000 people, was not under the formal jurisdiction
of London itself; its position on the south side of the river
put it in the Southwark district. Alongside its three
major competitors - the Swan, the Rose and the Hope - it was
in the 'sporting district' of Greater London, an area full
of establishments accommodating pastimes condemned by the
authorities, including the theatre, cock-fighting, bear-baiting
and drinking in taverns, but was outside their legal reach.
Acting was considered a 'purple profession' by at least the
most conservative elements of England, making it a precarious
way to make your living. Most actors were pulled up on charges
of vagrancy several times during their career if they weren't
under the protection of a powerful sponsor - this is what
set apart the Globe and its troupe - they were formally patronised
by the Lord Chamberlain of Queen Elizabeth ('Chamberlain's
Men') and then by King James ('His Majesty's Servants'). From
the 1590s the troupe emerged as the turbine of a revitalised
and extraordinary vibrant Elizabethan stage world; Shakespeare
wrote and staged some of his best known plays during this
decade including Romeo and Juliet, A Midsummer Night's
Dream and The Merchant of Venice. Firmly established
as theatre's leading light under the reign of James I he went
on to stage his increasingly political plays including Othello,
King Lear and Macbeth.
The Globe burnt down in 1613, during the performance of Henry
VIII in which a cannon shot ignited the thatched roof
of the gallery. It was rebuilt and continued its business
after Shakespeare's death (in 1616) until the Puritans shut
down London's theatres in 1642. In 1644 Cromwell's Round Heads
razed the theatre to make way for tenement housing.
The new Globe
Few documents on the structure of the Globe remained after
it was destroyed and its form and layout became an enigma.
The American actor Sam Wanamaker set up the Shakespeare
Globe Playhouse Trust in 1970 with the dream of reconstructing
the theatre as it the playwright knew it. That wish came to
fruition after research by Professor John Orrell in
the early 1980s and the discovery of the Globe's original
foundations in 1989.
The Globe now stands 200 yards from its original site, on
the south bank of the Thames near the Tate Modern art
gallery. It was built using traditional materials; the circular
structure is made up of twenty wooden bays (each three storeys
high), the walls are made from lime plaster and the stage
roof is thatched. The back wall of the stage is elaborately
decorated in its original style - early classical with three
openings. Huge oak pillars (painted to look like marble) support
the Heavens (the painted canopy above the stage). It opened
in 1997 and has proved fantastically popular ever since, such
is the authenticity of the performances - for just five British
pounds (the equivalent of a penny paid by the 'groundlings'
in Shakespeare's time) you can watch from the yard, the standing
area in front of the stage, but you'll be at the mercy of
the great English weather!
Not only can you see performances at the Globe, but you can
also take a tour and learn more about the original Globe's
amazing history and its modern re-construction, and there
are theatre and poetry classes, a library and a mine of literary
information for the visitor to explore.
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