Living in the Limelight - Shakespeare's Globe Theatre

All the world's indeed a stage
And we are merely players
Performers and portrayers
Each another's audience
Outside the gilded cage

- Rush  (Song and lyrics here.)

As an aspiring statistician, my knowledge of and background in the works of William Shakespeare are rather limited. I have read only Romeo and Juliet, Julius Caesar, and Macbeth, finding myself disinterested with each work. I have only seen one of the aforementioned three performed live: a modernization of Romeo and Juliet. I could never quite understand the “genius” behind Shakespeare, or his works. I could barely understand what was going on, let alone analyze the text! Moreover, I found the plots of each play trite and cliché; I heard all the stories elsewhere prior to reading them in Shakespeare. “Why even study this?”, I asked.

Now, when I picked up Hamlet for this class, I did so with great trepidation. I was afraid that, once again, I would come away from the play dissatisfied and confused. But I was determined to push through, and find something in the play I liked. I read it, and found myself saying: “You know what? That wasn’t too bad!” As a matter of fact, I actually liked it, and was looking forward to discussing it in class.

After our initial discussions in class, I learned that when we visited the Globe Theatre, we would discuss Hamlet with an actual Shakespearean actor.

The modern facade of the Globe Theatre

Upon arriving at the Globe, we met Simon. He has played every role in Hamlet except for Polonius and (Prince) Hamlet. He led us through extremely heavy birch doors into the heart of the theatre. Aesthetically, it was beautiful. It was the first open-air theatre I have ever been in. We learned from Simon that the Theatre’s design was meant to encompass the entire universe; the actual complex itself represented the earth (the Globe), the ceiling of the stage the heavens, and understage was hell.

View from the stage. Empowering, to say the least!

The rear of the stage. Notice the second level-balcony which would be used for scenes such as Act I, Scene I of Hamlet.

The ceiling of the stage. I believe the cut-out section would be for lowering an actor onto the stage, in the style of a deus ex machina.

Simon gave us a brief background of the history of the theatre and proceeded to take us on the stage to do some acting. This was the big moment of the day for me. Simon had us recite, as a group, the opening line to one of Hamlet’s soliloquies: “Who calls me villain?” That awakened a type of "performance rush" - the excitement one gets from performing onstage. I wanted to grab a copy of Hamlet, and recite all of his soliloquies! I imagined the seats of the theatre full, with just me on the stage as Hamlet. Silly, I know, but it felt great. I couldn't believe I was having this much fun reciting a single line from Shakespeare.

Who calls me villain?

We took our leave of the stage, and proceeded to attend an acting “workshop” with Simon. We played some acting “warm-up games”, and then delved into the nitty-gritty of it. We were handed a piece of paper containing the opening dialogue of Act I Scene 1 of Hamlet: the conversation between Bernardo and Francisco, and spoke the lines out loud as a group. Then, Simon had us recite the lines in iambic pentameter, which is the meter in which much English poetry is recited. It consists of five groups of two syllables, the first unstressed, and the second stressed. To illustrate this, consider what is perhaps the most famous line in Hamlet: "To be or not to be, that is the question". The proper way to read it, in iambic pentameter is: "to BE or NOT to BE that IS the QUES-tion". The bold syllables, in caps, are said with an increased emphasis.

It was really quite difficult to recite the lines up to speed, so Simon had us speak slowly, whilst stamping our feet on a ground like a metronome. This was when it hit me: we weren’t just speaking the lines, we were making rhythms with our speech!  As a drummer, this was of particular interest to me. Moreover, I noticed that Shakespeare’s rhythms are actually (more or less) equivalent to that of a shuffle, a common rhythm in Jazz and Rock. (For a good example of this, listen to the first 40-ish seconds of Blues to Elvin. Mr. Alfred McCoy Tyner is shufflin' away on the piano):  I never thought, in a million years, that I would be able to draw a connection between connect Shakespeare and drumming! The surprises on this trip never end, I suppose.

We concluded our excursion with a pub lunch, and an impromptu "class-trip" to the London Bridge. We were expecting to see a bridge like that of the Tower Bridge, but instead we found... a normal bridge. Nothing like we were made to expect from the nursery rhyme. It was a good photo-op though.

...is falling down

There should be a sign on these bridges... Please Mind the torrents of Wind.

-Greg