Let's visit the Globe Theatre in London. The Globe Theatre which you can see here and visit today is in fact the third Globe Theatre. The first Globe Theatre was built in about 1598 and it opened for its first production in 1599. It was one of four important theatres in this area.
The other three were the Hope, the Swan and the Rose. The original globe was not built precisely on the same spot as the modern-day globe. At that time, the River Thames was wider and the yard would have been in the river. The original site is close by, just 200 yards away. The foundations of the globe were rediscovered in 1989, and the site is marked by a plaque.
Hopefully, one day, they will be... properly excavated to reveal more of their secrets. Theatres were generally built on the south bank, rather than on the north bank of the River Thames. In the times of Elizabeth I, Bankside, as the area was known, was the place Londoners would come for entertainment. The bear gardens, where bear or bull baiting took place, were very popular, even with the Queen herself.
Theatre-going was a favourite pastime of all classes and walks of life. The public would travel over the river to the theatres on little ferry boats, if they could afford it, or by walking over the London Bridge, the only bridge across the river at that time. Theatres would advertise the fact that they were going to put on a performance by raising a flag over the theatre. which could be seen from the north bank.
So the first globe was open for performances in 1599, and it would host some of Shakespeare's greatest works over the next ten years. It saw the death of Queen Elizabeth and the accession to the throne of James I. The first globe burnt down in 1613 in a dramatic accident. A cannon which was fired to create special effects during a performance of Henry VIII, Shakespeare's last play set fire to the roof of Thatch and the whole theatre burnt down. The second glow was built on the same site just one year later, in 1614. It survived until 1642 when the Puritans closed down all theatres, as well as all other forms of entertainment. The Puritans knocked down the theatre completely in 1644 and built tenements on the site.
This third globe is a faithful reproduction of the original, as faithful as possible given the relatively small amount of information available. It was thanks to the determination and the vision of an American, Sam Wanamaker, that construction began in 1993. It was officially opened by Queen Elizabeth II in 1997. As you can see, the center of the circular-shaped theater is open to the sky. Lighting for the performances was in fact provided by the sunlight, so a performance would begin in the middle of the afternoon and finish before dark, so that the audience could get home safely. There were no performances during Lent or during outbreaks of the plague.
The roof of this reproduction is in Norfolk reed thatch, like the original, and it is the first thatch roof in London since the Great Fire of 1666. The walls are built of Lincolnshire oak timbers and plaster made of sand, lime and goat hair. The layout of the interior has been determined by using the only picture of the interior of an Elizabethan theatre which has come down to us. The sketch was made by a Dutch traveller, Johannes de Witt, and copied by his friend Arvin van Boekel, and it is of the Swan Theatre.
The globe is a circular 20-sided shape. The open air is called the pit or the yard and it is for members of the audience who are standing, the groundlings. The yard was the cheapest place to watch a play and it cost a penny. About a thousand people would be groundlings.
Around the yard are the galleries which are more protected from the elements. The galleries held two to three thousand people who paid two or more pennies to sit. The most expensive areas in the galleries were those closest to the stage, from which the performance could be best heard.
Playgoers in Shakespeare's times would say, I'm going to hear a play. and not I'm going to see a play, showing how important the script was. From here, they could also be best seen by the rest of the audience, showing off their finery.
The New Globe sits 900 people in the galleries and houses 700 in the pit. Actors were all men and boys and they played both male and female roles. Costumes were elaborate and specially made.
The stage projects halfway into the pit. so the audience would stand on three sides of it. Some would even sit on the edge of the stage itself. The roof of the stage is supported by two Herculean pillars made of single tree trunks and painted to represent marble in the style of Greek or Roman buildings.
The roof of the stage is called the heavens and it is from here that gods would descend to the stage, lowered through a trapdoor on ropes. The roof area is hollow for special effects. The heavens are painted with images of the sun, the moon, and the signs of the zodiac. Behind the pillars is the francenet, or stage, wall. This wall contains the doors through which the actors would make their entrances.
The doors lead to the tiring house, the place where actors would change their attire, in modern-day terms, the dressing rooms. The stage itself is made of wood and has a trapdoor to allow for special effects, such as the grave of the gravediggers in Hamlet. The stage is raised five feet off the ground.
Above the stage there is a balcony which was mainly used for the musicians. Music and songs were an important element in plays at the time, but could also serve as the balcony in Romeo and Juliet, for example. The Globe Theatre, a part of English history and a fascinating point of interest in contemporary London.