Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
This replica of the original Globe Theatre was built, half-timbered and thatched, as it was
in Shakespeare's time. (This is the first thatched roof constructed in London since they were
outlawed after the Great Fire of 1666.) The Globe originally accommodated 2,200 seated
and another 1,000 standing. Today, slightly smaller and leaving space for reasonable aisles,
the theater holds 800 seated and 600 groundlings. Its promoters brag that the theater melds
“the three A's”—actors, audience, and architecture—with each contributing to the play. The
working theater hosts authentic performances of Shakespeare's plays with actors in period
costumes, modern interpretations of his works, and some works by other playwrights. For
Visiting the Globe:
The complex has four parts: the theater itself, the box office, a mu-
seum, and the Jacobean Indoor Theatre. The Globe Exhibition ticket includes both a tour of
the Globe theater and the museum.
Museum:
First, you browse on your own (with the included audioguide) through dis-
plays of Elizabethan-era costumes and makeup, music, script-printing, and special effects.
There are early folios and objects that were dug up on site. A video and scale models help
put Shakespearean theater within the context of the times. (The Globe opened one year
after England mastered the seas by defeating the Spanish Armada. The debut play was
Shakespeare's
Julius Caesar.
) You'll also learn how they built the replica in modern times,
usingElizabethanmaterialsandtechniques.Takeadvantageofthetouchscreenstodelveinto
specific topics.
Theater:
Youmusttourthetheater atthetime stamped onyourticket, butyoucancome
back to the museum afterward; tickets are good all day. A guide (usually an actor) leads
you into the theater to see the stage and the various seating areas for the different classes of
people. You take a seat and learn how the new Globe is similar to the old Globe (open-air
performances, standing-room by the stage, no curtain) and how it's different (female actors
today,lightsfornightperformances,concretefloor).It'snotabackstagetour—youdon'tsee
dressing rooms or costume shops or sit in on rehearsals, though you may see workers build-
ing sets for a new production. You mostly sit and listen. The guides are energetic, theatrical,
and knowledgeable, bringing the Elizabethan period to life.
Whenmatineeperformancesaregoingon,youcan'ttourthetheater.Butyoucanseethe
museum, then tour the nearby (and less interesting) Rose Theatre instead.
Cost and Hours:
£13.50 includes museum and 40-minute tour, £10 when only the Rose
Theatre is available for touring, tickets good all day; complex open daily 9:00-17:00; ex-
hibition and tours: May-Sept—Globe tours offered mornings only with Rose Theatre tours
in afternoon; Oct-April—Globe tours run all day, tours start every 15-30 minutes; on the
South Bank directly across Thames over Southwark Bridge from St. Paul's, Tube: Man-
