Despite being a sweltering, urban sprawl, and my least favourite city that I have ever been to, London has one redeeming feature that keeps me coming back annually. Sitting by Southwark Bridge on the south side of the river Thames is Shakespeare’s Globe. Opened in 1997, this amphitheatre is an accurate recreation of The Globe of Shakespeare’s time and each Summer is home to an exciting programme of Shakespearean plays. This season featured one play that I have been waiting years to see on their stage, the thrilling tragedy of Macbeth. Though this play was the bane of many higher level leaving cert papers, I found it to be one of the more enjoyable things on the curriculum.
The performers at Shakespeare’s Globe are in a league of their own. Masters of their specific area of theatre, they know the plays back to front and probably mumble soliloquies in their sleep. Before anyone took to the stage at the matinée performance I was attending, an announcement was made that two of the players were sick and unable to play their parts. The huge downside here is that Shakespeare’s Globe does not have understudies and the two roles left empty were the parts of Macduff and Lady Macbeth, the two most pivotal roles other than the titular character. With two different players stepping into their shoes, I was surprised to find that, had I not been told they weren’t the actual performers; I probably wouldn’t have noticed save for the strange and consistent prop of a booklet in hand which was a script that neither of them seemed to truly need. Knowing that the performers have such a high level of both passion and expertise certainly added to the viewing experience.
Shakespeare’s Globe provides a theatrical experience that many theatres should try to replicate. In terms of accessibility, particularly for young people, I have seen nowhere do it better than Shakespeare’s Globe. Though the seated tickets are priced regularly for a theatre, standing tickets are five pounds and are kept at that price. This opens the experience to a huge number of potential visitors.
Action-packed and comedically timed, Macbeth is taken from the pages of Shakespeare’s play and vividly resurrected on stage. With compelling physical performance from Max Bennett as Macbeth, this show was an incredible addition to this season. The shows performed at this theatre are often used as educational tools, particularly as Shakespeare is compulsory in most English speaking studies. The quality that the players at Shakespeare’s Globe bring to the stage is a sure way to capture the adoration of young people and keep them interested in theatre.
