Wednesday 30 December 2009

To be or not...


Coming back to England is strange for me now after so long and spending an afternoon with my 90 year old aunt makes it even stranger.

Driving through dark, wet, narrow country lanes to make that possible gave me a chance to visit dark, damp corners of my own psychosis.

I’m not sure I will be able to share much of the darkness I have visited in the last few days, I’m not even sure I am ready to face them directly myself, or even if I want to articulate them yet.

However, yesterday I went – with my closest - to the Globe theatre in London.

And that was brilliant.

When I lived in this city the Globe was simply a plaque on the wall past which I cycled occasionally. Today it has been rebuilt and stands amongst converted wharf and riverside.

I had hesitated before buying tickets between sitting on a bench with or without a blanket and standing among the “penny stinkers”.

The Globe has no roof – a significant oversight some might say, but historically accurate my friend Dave says.

Dave has recently converted to a radical and extreme branch of Buddhism so what he says should be treated with divine interest, but on this occasion I think he is also correct.

My own assertion – what’s the point of doing a show INSIDE a theatre if the theatre has no roof – was quickly ridiculed as, despite the pouring rain that has lead to the damp recesses I have been driving through, I had a brilliant time.

4 comments:

Anne Hodgson said...

What did you see?

I grew up just a few blocks from The Folger Shakespeare Library on Capitol Hill, where they put on the plays in charmingly original versions (with the players dancing out among the audience) in a replica of the Globe Theatre, but with the roof on. The shows were really cheap, season tickets.
Now the Folger Shakespeare Company play downtown in a "regular" theater, and are horrendously expensive, but have all the right youth programs and such, coz finally enough space for everything.

popps said...

It's the same the whole world over
Its the poor that get the blame
Its the rich that get the riches
Aint it all a bleeding shame.

Anne Hodgson said...

Oh, and it was Hamlet then?

popps said...

No,in fact it was Footsbarn Theatre's Christmas Cracker.