The Play's the thing....

Waiting for the performance to start.

Nick and I were very lucky to obtain tickets for yesterday evening's performance at the Globe Theatre on Bankside.

Yesterday was of course the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare's death, but it also marked the 'homecoming' of the fantastic Globe to Globe Hamlet.  This production has, since setting off from the Globe in 2014 on the 450th anniversary of Shakespeare's birth,  played 293 times in 196 different countries.  More information and interesting facts about this extraordinary feat of theatre can be found HERE.

Even though there was a certain 'Danish battlement' chill in the air last night,  the warmth of the audience's response and the continued vibrancy and freshness of the production made for a truly memorable evening.

Actors start to assemble for the show, plus screen showing scenes from the production's world tour.

Last week I postponed writing about the third part of another day I spent in London recently.  That was because it was also spent at the Globe attending a preview of this year's Summer season.  The theatre now has a new Artistic Director, Emma Rice who takes over from Dominic Dromgoole very shortly.  Emma has caused some concern among Shakespearian 'purists' in stating that there will be 'changes' coming to the Globe, and, rather alarmingly has threatening to change the words of Fear no More the Heat O'the Sun.  Until now the theatre has in general presented fairly straightforward interpretations of the plays in its historically authentic space and I think that this has been appreciated by many of the Globe's fans.

The truth is however that even in Shakespeare's time plays were much altered, and the idea of a canonical version of the text is a relatively new one.  Hamlet itself had three different published alternatives.   These are often combined in different ways in performance, and, in fact, if one played it in its First Folio entirety it would take over 4 hours, so it almost always cut down.

Directors' comments on the upcoming Summer season that we heard last week sounded fascinating, and, although we were sworn to secrecy last week,  I think Emma and her team should be given the benefit of the doubt!