Shakespeare at the Globe

Plays Written to be Played

But pardon Gentles, all

This piece has been in the writing for a few days now. It started life on St Georges Day – 23 April – which has been traditionally understood as the birthday of William (Will) Shakespeare in 1564. Curiously – nay, coincidentally enough – he is meant to have died on the same day in 1616.

England’s greatest playwright – without a doubt, although had it not been for an unfortunate argument about a reckoning at a tavern in Deptford I am of the view that Christopher (Kit) Marlowe would have given Will a run for his money for the top spot.

I say that because when in London in 2016 we went and saw Jamie Lloyd’s adaptation of “Dr Faustus” with Kit Harington in the title role. It was a different production from the very beginning. Even ‘ere the curtain raised there was background music which included AC/DC’s “Hells Bells” and the Rolling Stone’s “Sympathy for the Devil”. That set the atmosphere brilliantly.

It was a powerful play. Marlowe left something of a blank about halfway through where Faustus demonstrates his powers – in this case as a Las Vegas illusionist – but it was at the end when Mephistopheles came to collect that Marlowe reveals his brilliance and the horrific collapse as the Faustus’ body was purged of its soul was stunning – breathtaking – awful to imagine.

Goethe’s “Faust” is seen as the gold standard for the tale but give me Kit’s telling of it as a benchmark.

So Kit died in a knifing incident at Deptford and Will carried on from triumph to triumph.

My acquaintance with Will started young. My father had records of Laurence Olivier declaiming lines from Henry V and he took me (when I was about 10) to Richard III and that magnificent reading of the “winter of our discontent”

That was probably the beginning of my love affair with Will’s plays - an affair which continued through school and afterwards, participating in productions of “Macbeth”, “Hamlet” and “Twelfth Night”.

And so to 1981 and a trip to England, and this prologue having concluded, on to the tale.

When we had the opportunity to travel to England in 1981 we decided to do a road trip from Edinburgh back to London via York and Stratford-upon-Avon. Accommodation had been booked in Stratford and tickets secured for a performance of “A Midsummer Nights Dream” at the Memorial Theatre.

We had arranged to meet a friend in Harrogate, just out of York, a gentleman named Andre Surridge who had played Hamlet in a Hamilton production. Andre was a Shakespeare devotee who, while living in England, would ride his thumb to Stratford and sleep under hedges to see a production, and in this manner he had seen all of Shakespeare’s plays over the years.

The plan was to drive to York from Harrogate and stay at a motel outside the town. I recall Andre leading me to the Micklegate Bar and reciting a line from 3 Henry VI Act 2 Sc 2

“Welcome, my lord, to this brave town of York.”

He didn’t follow up with the rest of Margaret of Anjou’s speech –

Yonder's the head of that arch-enemy

That sought to be encompass'd with your crown:

Doth not the object cheer your heart, my lord?

But it was a great welcome to a great city. We spent time at the Minster and also at a pub by the river and then a rather shambling walk along the battlements of the old city wall.

The next day it was on to Stratford and to a wonderful hotel – The Alveston Manor – which is still there. It was a wonderful old building with floors that sloped ever so slightly and great, warm and welcoming hospitality from staff who knew of our coming and how it was that we were in England.

And across the river over an old stone bridge was the Royal Shakespeare Theatre and the playing of “Dream”. And Dream it was – a glorious, magical, serendipitous reading of the surrealist tale of the lovers and the mechanicals, and the contest between Oberon and Titania and the wonderful ending where the reality we saw vanished as shadows and we were back to today.

Robin’s final words say it all:

If we shadows have offended,
Think but this and all is mended:
That you have but slumbered here
While these visions did appear.
And this weak and idle theme,

No more yielding but a dream,
Gentles, do not reprehend.
If you pardon, we will mend.
And, as I am an honest Puck,
If we have unearnèd luck
Now to ’scape the serpent’s tongue,
We will make amends ere long.
Else the Puck a liar call.
So good night unto you all.
Give me your hands, if we be friends,
And Robin shall restore amends.

I think there is only one other closing to a Shakespeare play that is as good as that – it comes from my personal favourite “The Tempest”. Prospero speaks.

Our revels now are ended. These our actors,

As I foretold you, were all spirits and

Are melted into air, into thin air:

And, like the baseless fabric of this vision,

The cloud-capp'd towers, the gorgeous palaces,

The solemn temples, the great globe itself,

Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve

And, like this insubstantial pageant faded,

Leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff

As dreams are made on, and our little life

Is rounded with a sleep.

This clip comes from a 2022 production at Shakespeare’s Globe. Ferdy Roberts is Prospero. You can get a good idea of the layout of the theatre (which I discuss shortly) and the proximity of the audience. For a different reading by David Threlfall have a look at this

In both speeches Will captures the essence of a play – a dreamlike excursion into the world of imagination for the brief span of an hourglass. As the prologue to Henry V puts it:

And let us, ciphers to this great accompt,

On your imaginary forces work.

Suppose within the girdle of these walls

Are now confined two mighty monarchies,

Whose high upreared and abutting fronts

The perilous narrow ocean parts asunder:

Piece out our imperfections with your thoughts;

Into a thousand parts divide one man,

And make imaginary puissance;

Think when we talk of horses, that you see them

Printing their proud hoofs i' the receiving earth;

For 'tis your thoughts that now must deck our kings,

Carry them here and there; jumping o'er times,

Turning the accomplishment of many years

Into an hour-glass.

Here is Derek Jacobi reading the prologue from Branagh’s 1989 film

Here is a different reading of the prologue to Henry V from Shakespeare’s Globe but it gives you an idea of the Wooden O

The Chorus, of course, was speaking of the “wooden O” that was the Globe, and it is to the Globe rebuilt that the story now moves.

The original Globe Theatre was a theatre in London was built in 1599 at Southwark, close to the south bank of the Thames, by Shakespeare's playing company, the Lord Chamberlain's Men. It was destroyed by fire on 29 June 1613.

A second Globe Theatre was built on the same site by June 1614 and stayed open until the London theatre closures of 1642. As well as plays by Shakespeare, early works by Ben Jonson, Thomas Dekker and John Fletcher were first performed here.

A modern reconstruction of the Globe, named "Shakespeare's Globe", opened in 1997 approximately 750 feet (230 m) from the site of the original theatre. It was built primarily as a result of the enthusiasm of American actor Sam Wannamaker.

It was Wanamaker's wish that the new building recreate the Globe as it existed during most of Shakespeare's time there; that is, the 1599 building rather than its 1614 replacement. A study was made of what was known of the construction of The Theatre, the building from which the 1599 Globe obtained much of its timber, as a starting point for the modern building's design. To this were added examinations of other surviving London buildings from the latter part of the 16th century; comparisons with other theatres of the period (particularly the Fortune Playhouse, for which the building contract survives); and contemporary drawings and descriptions of the first Globe. For practical reasons, some features of the 1614 rebuilding were incorporated into the modern design, such as the external staircases.

It is a wonderful playhouse that captures the spirit of Shakespeare’s plays with a level of authenticity even when the productions are “modernized” with different dress.

I make a point of seeing Shakespeare at the Globe on every visit to London. On our first visit we saw “Julius Caesar”.

Before I comment on the performance I should describe the theatre. It is shaped like an O (the wooden O) with the stage occupying the top quarter. Seating is arranged around the other three quarters at different levels and there is a vacant space between the seats and the stage – the pit area for the “groundlings”. The seats are benches and are racked upwards on each level. They do not have backs and they are wooden. For a pound you can rent a cushion – an absolute necessity. Between the seating sections are aisles which lead to the outside of the theatre.

What was astounding and what at the same time is gratifying is that the pit (standing room only) is always full and by and large the audience there is young. For the price of 5 pounds one can stand in the pit and I marvelled at the enthusiasm of the young audience occupying it. Clearly there is still a young audience for Shakespeare.

The other thing that happened involved the play itself. The opening of Caesar involves an exchange between Caesar’s supporters and his opponents. Some of the members of the contending groups were on the stage. Others were scattered about the audience. So immediately, like it or not, there was audience involvement.

Then word came through. The great man approached but it was difficult initially to work out where he was coming from. In fact, he made his entry not from backstage but through one of the aisles from the outside. And as he approached the cry went up Caesar, Caesar, Caesar and what was amazing was that when he reached the pit and mounted the stage the whole theatre was chanting his name. Audience involvement became audience participation and it was simply magic.

There have been other plays. “As You Like It” was amazing. “The Merchant of Venice” had Jonathan Pryce as Shylock – his performance was a joy. (This clip is a promotional for the play)

I particularly liked the trial scene (“The Quality of Mercy” speech is a small part of that) because as the trial progressed it became clear that there were a number of theories put forward about the nature of law. That caused me to think that the trial scene from “The Merchant” would make an excellent teaching aid for jurisprudence (the philosophy of law).

The latest play (2024) that we saw was “Much Ado About Nothing” with a rather louche Benedick and an active termagant Beatrice – both were brilliant. But in common with all the plays that we have seen staged at the Globe was the way in which the audience was involved. The Caesar example was but one.

All of the plays involved a substantial amount of communication with (not just to) the audience. In “Much Ado” we became confidants of Benedick – most of his lines were delivered to the audience. We became part of the action, involved in the play. What happened to the characters mattered, even although we might be familiar with Shakespeare’s plot.

And then there is the fooling. Shakespeare’s comedic characters are made to be played – not read. The scenes involving Dogberry the night-watchman were a riot and were played for every laugh imaginable.

And that leads me to the approach to Shakespeare here in New Zealand. I gather that there may not be an approach to Shakespeare for very much longer which would be a tragedy. But as Shakespeare was taught and studied when I was at school there would be class room readings, discerning the plot, character studies, perhaps a bit of thematic discussion, symbolism and meaning. Quite the wrong way to teach Shakespeare.

Shakespeare wrote to be played. And there is no excuse these days for every student to be introduced to Shakespeare by way of a performance. If there is not a live one going there are plenty of DVDs and recordings of the plays.

The BBC did the whole oeuvre some years ago. There is a recent “Macbeth” with Michael Fassbender. Ian McKellan did an interesting interpretation of “Richard III” and Branagh has filmed a number of the plays – his “Henry V” (1989) is excellent. There is a scene where Exeter (played by Brian Blessed) confronts to Dauphin – a scene that drips with menace – not as famous as “Once more unto the breach” but brilliant nonetheless. That said Olivier’s 1944 film – partly staged at the Globe, partly in the field is the gold standard in my view. Especially Olivier’s reading of St Crispins Day.

There is no excuse for ensuring that the first contact that a student has with Shakespeare should be a performance of the play. And once it is understood as a play, then is the time to dissect the speeches. What did Harry mean when he said

“And gentlemen in England now abed

Shall think themselves accursed they were not here

And hold their manhoods cheap

While others speak

That fought with us upon St Crispin’s Day”

What was Hamlet talking about with the “To be or not to be” soliloquy and how did he get to that point? And was he really a procrastinator? Was “Hamlet” really a play about a man who could not make up his mind?

We could still be learning about the plays of Shakespeare as examinations of the human condition if they were properly taught.

Shakespeare’s plays closed with a light-hearted capering – perhaps reflecting the catharsis of which Robin and Prospero referred to as the play came to an end.

And after the performances that we saw there was a caper – a dance by the whole cast. A joyful moment to end a joyful occasion. The British really know how to do Shakespeare.