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| Shakespeares Globe Theatre |
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The Globe Theatre, when it opened in 1599 was the most spectacular theatre London had ever seen. It could accommodate an audience running into the thousands, and held a reputation as a brothel and a gambling den as well as a theatre. Its construction came as the result of a bizarre legal spat between Giles Allen, the Landlord of the theatre at Blackfriars, and the company of actors who worked there. These were the Lord Chamberlain's Men, the company Shakespeare wrote and acted for during the most part of his career. When they failed to renegotiate the lease, the Babage brothers - actor Richard and company-member Cuthbert - ordered their carpenters to strip the theatre piece by piece and transported it across the river Thames to its site at Bankside. Thus, the Globe was built on a site approximately 200 yards from the location of its modern reconstruction which opened in 1997. Shakespeare takes 12.5% ownership of the GlobeAlthough it is commonly referred to as Shakespeare's Globe, the theatre was originally owned by this consortium of actors: the Babages between them held a 50% share, with Shakespeare and three other men - John Heminges, Augustine Phillips, and Thomas Pope - each taking a stake of 12.5%. Each of the shareholders was a member of the Lord Chamberlain's Men, which became The King's Men in 1603 when James I ascended to the throne. It is thought that Shakespeare's great tragedy Macbeth was acted at The Globe to mark the coronation of James, and that the play benignly satirizes the Tudor reign of the new King's predecessor, Elizabeth I, who had ordered the death of his mother Mary Queen of Scots. Globe Theatre burns down - due to faulty cannonIn 1613, the Globe was destroyed in a fire caused by one of the cannons which were kept for special effects. The accident happened during a performance of Shakespeare's Henry VIII, a play he is suspected to have written in collaboration with John Fletcher. It would be the last new play by Shakespeare to be performed at the theatre. The Globe was rebuilt the following year, however, and plays by Wiliam Davenant, Richard Brome, Philip Massinger, and collaoborations between Beaumont, and Fletcher continued to be performed for another three decades. After the English Civil War and the Puritan revolution, English theatres were closed by act of Parliament. In 1644 the Globe was demolished. Its foundations were re-discovered in 1989, and the vision of former-actor Sam Wannamaker for its rebuilding could be realized. Globe Theatre introduces class statusThe experience of visiting the Globe today is very similar to that of visiting during its Elizabethan heyday. Tickets vary between those for groundlings - who stand in front of the stage - and seats in the galleries. And of course, because the theatre tries to recreate the historical situation of all the plays it produces, every performance is held in the afternoon, using only the light of the sun through the open roof, and subject to the changeable English elements. Be it Denmark, Italy, or further a field, the players have to evoke Shakespeare's settings using only the means available to Shakespeare himself. © David Thorley, 2007.Shakespeare’s Globe, 21 New Globe Walk, Bankside, London SE1 9DT Hotels near the Globe Theatre
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