The Globe Theatre

Sham S.Misri

(On my recent trip to England, 16^th March to 15^th June, 2012, I, had an opportunity to see The Globe Theatre)
Elizabeth I (1533 – 1603) was queen of England and Ireland from November 1558 until her death. Sometimes called The Virgin Queen, Elizabeth was the fifth and last monarch of the Tudor dynasty. She was short-tempered and an indecisive ruler. Towards the end of her reign, a series of economic and military problems weakened her popularity.Elizabeth's reign is known as the Elizabethan era. This era was famous for the flourishing of English drama, led by the famous playwrights such as William Shakespeare and Christopher Marlowe.      

Some of Shakespeare’s most famous plays were first performed at the Globe Theatre, which was built on the South Bank of River Thames in 1599. Going to Globe Theatre was a grand experience those days. The building was roughly circular in shape. It had flat sides

The Globe Theatre was an open air theatre. The plays were only put on during day light hours in spring and summer. People paid a penny to stand in the central space and watch a play, and this part of the audience became known as ‘the groundlings’ because they stood on the ground. Some place in the tiers of seating was kept beneath the thatched roof. The place under the thatched roof had a slightly better view. The thatched roof also prevented the people from getting wet if it rained. A person had to pay some extra cost for the place under the thatched roof.

The Elizabethans did not bath very often and the audience at the Globe were smelly. Fine ladies and gentlemen in the more expensive seats sniffed perfume and bags of sweetly – scented herbs to cover the stink rising from the surroundings.

There were no actresses on the stage. All the female characters in Shakespeare’s plays would have been acted by boys, wearing wigs and make up. Audiences were not well behaved. People clapped and cheered when their favourite actors came on stage. The bad actors were jeered at and sometimes pelted with whatever came to hand.

Most Londoner’s worked hard to make a living and in their precious free time they liked to be entertained. Shakespeare understood the magic of the theatre so well that today, almost four hundred years after his death; his plays still cast a spell over thousands of people that go to see them.

In Elizabethan times, any sword scene which would end in a murder would have been seen with full glory visual effects. To make sword fights seem more realistic, pigs’ bladders filled with blood were hidden, in the actors’ costumes, and pierced with the point of a sword or a dagger. The audience would have been spellbound by the murder scene.