Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
SHAKESPEARE & CO
London's first purpose-built theatres emerged in Shoreditch in the 1570s, but they flourished
on Bankside, with no fewer than four during the reign of James I: the
Swan
, built in 1587,
with Edward Alleyn (founder of Dulwich College) as the lead actor and Christopher Marlowe
as its main playwright; the
Rose
, built in 1595, its foundations still extant on Park Street; the
Hope
, built in 1613, which doubled as a bear-garden and theatre; and the
Globe
, erected in
1599 on Park Street, where Shakespeare put on his greatest plays, now reconstructed on
New Globe Walk. The theatres lasted barely half a century before being closed down by the
Puritans, who considered them “chapels of Satan”. With the Restoration, the focus of the
theatre scene, and its accompanying vices, moved to Covent Garden, and Southwark faded
from the limelight.
paintings from 2006. In the adjacent room hangs
Waterlilies
, one of
Monet
's
experiments with abstraction from nearly a century earlier.
Level 4
One of the central rooms in
Structure and Clarity
, on Level 4, has an impressive
collection of interwar abstract art by the likes of Kandinsky, Naum Gabo, the De Stijl
duo of Mondrian and van Doesburg, as well as the Brit duo of Ben Nicolson and
Barbara Hepworth. Picasso and Braque's
Cubism
gets a room to itself, but the room
that usually blows most visitors' minds is the one devoted to
Minimalism
. Here you
have the epitome of modern art,
Monochrome White
Painting
by Li Yuan-Chia, though
to be fair there are four small white circles embossed on it, whereas Gerhard Richter's
Grey
does what it says on the tin.
Over in
Energy and Process
, there's a gallery devoted to the Italian art movement,
arte
povera
, from the late 1960s, in which found objects played an important role. But this
wing also has more recent acquisitions, such as Marisa Merz's giant floating aluminium
sculpture, which used to hang in her house, and a whole room of Cy Twombly's late
works: bronze casts and great Bacchic explosions of paint. Other highlights include
Lucio Fontana's slashed canvases, and watching other visitors' embarrassment as they
look at Art & Language's
Untitled Painting
(it's actually a mirror).
16
Shakespeare's Globe Theatre
21 New Globe Walk • Exhibition mid-April to mid-Sept Mon-Sat 9am-12.30pm & 1-5pm, Sun 9-11.30am & noon-5pm; mid-Oct to
mid-April 9am-5.30pm • £11.50 •
T
020 7902 1500,
W
shakespearesglobe.com •
!
Southwark or London Bridge
Dwarfed by Tate Modern, but equally remarkable in its own way,
Shakespeare's Globe
Theatre
is a more or less faithful reconstruction of the polygonal playhouse where most
of the Bard's later works were first performed. The theatre, which boasts the first new
thatched roof in central London since the Great Fire, puts on plays by Shakespeare and
his contemporaries, using only natural light and the minimum of scenery. The season
runs from May to September, and the performances are usually both fun, historically
authentic and critically acclaimed (see p.419). Round the back of the Globe,
Sam
Wanamaker's Playhouse
has recently been built, a faithful reconstruction of the sort
of intimate, candlelit, indoor Jacobean theatre where Shakespeare's company would
have performed during the winter months, and where plays will now be put on
throughout the year.
To find out more about Shakespeare and the history of Bankside, the Globe's stylish
exhibition
,
to the west of the theatre, is well worth a visit. It details the long campaign
by the single-minded American actor Sam Wanamaker (1919-93) to have the Globe
rebuilt, but it's the interactive exhibits that hit the spot. You can have a virtual play on
period musical instruments such as the crumhorn or sackbut, prepare your own edition
of Shakespeare and feel the thatch, hazelnut shell and daub used to build the theatre.
There are even booths in which you can record and compare your own rendition of key
