On Saturday 25th May, 30 of our members, and friends or family of members, went on a tour of the Globe Theatre and then attended a performance of Much Ado about Nothing at the theatre. The tour (which took place during a rehearsal of the performance we were going to watch later) really brought the Elizabethan experience of attending the Globe to life. We learnt that the first Globe Theatre was built in 1599 and destroyed by fire 14 years later. The new Globe theatre was opened in 1997, but 16th century building methods were used to construct it and the roof is thatched with reeds, so that it is still a big fire risk, although the sprinkler system may be an improvement on fire prevention techniques available in Shakespeare’s time.
We were also told about the ‘groundlings’, also referred to as stinkards or penny-stinkers, who were too poor to pay to be able to sit on one of the three levels of the theatre. If they paid one penny (the price of a loaf of bread), they could stand in “the pit”, also called “the yard”, just below the stage, to watch the play. When we watched the performance, I think we all felt a little bit envious of the groundlings as they could see everything (unlike us due to our cheap seats at the side of the stage) and were sometimes involved in the action. It looked really fun, but I don’t think many of us could have lasted the course.
The performance of Much Ado About Nothing was hilarious, shocking and tragic in turns. We all agreed that Beatrix and Benedict were absolutely fantastic and the whole production was superb.
We are now thinking of a follow-up trip to the Sam Wannamaker theatre in the winter. Watch this space!