Who rebuilt the Globe Theater? Well you might be surprised that it wasn't a British person it was an American, Sam Wanamaker We're looking at Shakespeare's Globe which is a modern reconstruction very near to the site of Shakespeare's own original Globe Theater which was built in 1599. And this reconstruction is the best way really of getting a sense of what Shakespeare's actual theatrical practice of his own time would have been like. Here we are in London England we are currently on Bank side across the River Thames we have the Saint Paul's Cathedral it's a famous Cathedral and on this side of the city of London we've got the financial district. Now on this side, the bank side, we actually have a reconstruction of the Globe Theater which was built over 400 years ago theater and it was rebuilt in an exact replica of the Globe Theater was rebuilt in 1997 using traditional methods English Oakwood and they actually had the Architects notes so it's an exact replica of what it would have looked like over 400 years ago. [Music] Why is the Globe Theater without a roof? Why is it open air concept? That's because 400 years ago when they built it, they didn't have electricity so that's why they would show the plays around 2 p.m in the afternoon when there was natural sunlight. Now this flagpole that you see, they would raise a flag to demonstrate that a play was going to be starting. Okay now let's go take a look inside. [Music] In this upcoming video you'll have the opportunity to view an interview I conducted with Michael, our knowledgeable Globe Theater tour guide. During our conversation Michael sheds light on some common misconceptions surrounding the play Hamlet. We also delve into the theatrical superstitions that prevent people from referring to the play Macbeth by its actual name. Lastly we discuss the unique audience experience at the Globe Theater during Shakespeare's time. I hope you enjoy our discussion. So we`re here today with our host Michael who gave us a wonderful guide of the Globe Theater. Michael can you tell us a little bit about the Globe Theater and why for example in Hamlet what are some misconceptions about the play. Yeah so I think that Hamlet, just like all of Shakespeare's plays, really speak to the audience at the time. So that essentially is about the key speech in that is the to be or not to be speech and really it's about humanity and that that play is so important nowadays is because people still go along to it and they will still get messages from it. I should say as well again it's in Hamlet, that the The Lion King musical is based on exactly the same plot. Um now I think the the point about that is that Hamlet is a young prince he's coming back to his castle because his father's been killed and he's really going through a quite a stage of angst because there are responsibilities on him as a king, or as a member of the royal family rather, to to take revenge on people that have caused his family problems and he's not able to do. The to be or not to be speech is really speaking about why he cannot do what's expected of him which is take revenge on the people that killed his father. I think the again is uh about a skull and it's against that mortality and about life so I think that kind of speaks to us today because you know all of us at some point in our lives will be thinking about death and mortality that's the play. Interesting, and the Globe Theater itself when was it built originally? Yeah so the Globe itself was built in 1599 and burnt down in 1613. If you look around you will see that uh the construction here is the same as the construction of that time and it's all made of wood. It's English Oak and it's thatched roof, it's the only thatched roof in London. Also with 9500 handmade pegs and that's because it's traditional technique it's the vision of one man called Sam Wanamaker who wanted to rebuild Shakespeare's Globe and basically spent his life raising the money to build the Globe. So we call it a faithful reconstruction. Fantastic. And why would you say that theater people they are not allowed to say the word Macbeth. Yeah so there are a couple of traditions. I mean actors in general are quite superstitious people. So it was a quite famous play, we call it Shakespeare's Scottish play, so you know I think you can say but I can't because I work in theatre. I call it Beth Mac or uh Macaroni Beth sometimes. And the point about that play is well there's a couple of them. So first of all, people are they find unlucky, actors they say are superstitions they don't like to say that phrase because well it begins with witches casting spells, lots of Sword fights so it doesn't take very much for an actor to get attacked to a bad production and it's seen as kind of an unlucky play. So you should never go up to an actor and say I saw you in Beth Mac because uh you would be uh that's not the sort of thing you would say to an actor. That plays is also very interesting because like many Shakespeare plays they're a bit like Hamlet uh it speaks uh of its time and it was written in 1605 and performed here in 1606 and that's relevant because King James the single King James of Scotland became King James the first of England in 1603 and there's a lot of turbulence in that time. And so Macbeth was saying by putting on a play where essentially if you killed a king, society will fall apart. So often in productions the witches would come out from below the stage because they're coming out from Hell and also in the last production we did, the set itself was basically all kind of rocks and it was about society fallen because as you know in that play it doesn't end particularly well for Beth Mac. The point reflects on society at large. I actually think I said the M-word during that so I'm probably gonna take me three hours. Last question I promise, it was really interesting in the tour you were talking about the experience of the audience during Shakespearean times, could you tell us a little bit about their experience 400 years ago? Yeah so that's a good point, because people would basically get different things from basically the standard of education where there's still in society and really how educated they were so uh the theater held 3 000 people. The people who stood at the bottom they paid the lowest amounts of money, and they had the best view, so opposite to theaters today. But they were called "Penny stinkers" they're uneducated, they don't have very much money, but for them it's a hard, it's a break for them from the really hard life over there in puritan London. So the Penny stinkers for them it's like they will come and see a story but they won't necessarily understand. So if you're studying Hamlet or um say or Beth Mac then uh then you'll be studying it looking at the themes. That won't work for the Penny stinkers, for them its a play about a king who gets killed and society falls apart. And that's really all that they were likely to get because they're not educated at all. The uh 2000 play goers they will have more education, whether they understand all the symbolism in the play is difficult, we'll spend lots of time studying those plays, so hard to say really, but for them again it would be a story. The people that would understand are in sitting in the boxes so in the corners there they're the "gentleman" they're University educated they understand the themes they would have studied Latin at school. They would understand it but they really were coming to show themselves off, so for them they're really coming to really kind of uh show off their money and their wealth. It's a bit like we sometimes say on tour it's their Instagram. It's their kind of social media and the last group behind the stage, the Lords, again Lords would understand it because they're very well educated but for them it's really about coming along and and being uh being on show again to the kind of poor people. So this theater is much about reflecting society at that time not necessarily all about the themes in the play. Michael it was a pleasure to speak with you and thank you very much. foreign [Music]