Shakespeare's Globe: Old Media Roadtrip

I think it would be positively blasphemous to go to London and not see a Shakespeare play in the big wooden O across the Thames. Fortunately our New Media Roadtrip made a brief excursion into Very Old Media for a performance of A Comedy of Errors at Shakespeare’s Globe.

The Globe is an authentic reconstruction of the open-air theatre where Shakespeare worked and wrote in the sixteen hundreds. The original Globe, where plays like Hamlet, and Macbeth debuted,burned to the ground in 1613 when a prop cannon ignited the thatched roof during a production of Henry VIII. Needless to say, the roof of the second Globe was tiled, but less than thirty years after it re-opened, it was closed down by Puritans. The modern Globe, now dubbed Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre, was built in 1997 and is the first thatched roof building permitted to be built in London since the Great Fire, but wisely includes a sprinkler system.

The play itself was marvelous. A Comedy of Errors is quite possibly one of Shakespeare’s silliest plays with not one, but two set of identical twins and lots of monologues that ended with people rolling on the floor. The show was accompanied by a live band in the upper level of the set who underscored the scenes and provided sound effects for the numerous servant beatings and pratfalls. The play is based on a comedy by the ancient playwright Plautus; and this performance paid homage to its Roman roots with colorful tunics and its use of the horizontal space of the stage. The final confrontation in front of the house of one of the Antipholi and the abbey recalls the multiple entrances of the typical ancient Roman theatre.

My only complaint is that the authentic architecture of the space placed a large column in the middle of my field of view. Oh well. If I had really wanted to be gung-ho I should have gone “Groundling” and stood in the middle of the open square, where all the rude, filthy plague-ridden peasants used to stand. We did have a rather amazing groundling moment during this performance while Dromio of Syracuse was comparing the fat maid to a globe and finding countries in her.

ANTIPHOLUS: Where France?
DROMIO OF SYRACUSE: In her forehead; armed and reverted, making war against her heir.
ANTIPHOLUS:Where England?
DROMIO:I looked for the chalky cliffs, but I could find no whiteness in them; but I guess it stood in her chin, by the salt rheum that ran between France and it.

At this point in time, an audience member beat Antipholus to the punch and yelled out “Spain!” There was a brief moment of silence, then 1500 people burst out laughing, and stared down at the actors, who were trying hard not to join them. Eventually, Antipholus chimed in with, “Well? Where’s Spain” and Dromio faithfully delivered his next line with mostly a straight face, and managed to convince at least me that he was making it up on the spot.

DROMIO: Faith, I saw it not; (an extended pause, audience exhales.) But I felt it! (audience laughs and bursts into applause)

Now, a few of us have been debating whether the vocal groundling was a plant, but in my heart of hearts, I believe it was just a smart-ass Shakespeare fan thrilled to be in “this wooden O.”

-Rachel Teagle

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