Globe Teater

On our second day we had breakfast at Costa, a cafe next door to the hotel. We had croissants, tea and coffee. After breakfast, we took the Jubilee line to Waterloo station. At the Waterloo intersection, we took the grey line (District line) to Southwark for our guided tour of the Globe Teater.

Tim had booked a visit to Globe Teater on the internet before our London trip. Before the tour, there was an exhibition on Shakespeare, his works, his life and his plays. A very animated guide took us on a tour around the teater. The heart of the teater is a circular open-air teater with seats in an ascending manner and arranged in a semi-circle. The seats looked out onto a stage with an extended platform in the middle of the stage. Unlike the stage which is covered, the extended platform is not. Spectators can buy tickets for shows performed on the stage, the cheapest being the 'standing' ticket i.e standing up in the open space before the stage to watch plays being performed. GBP 5 for 2 hours standing up watching a play with a 15 minute toilet break!

The roof covered the ascending seats. According to the guide, the straw and hay used to make the roof had to be imported with Norway as England had run out of it due to global warming! Over time, due to pollution the straw changed to a silvery grey from its original color of golden brown. The seats and the teater were made of oak with nary a nail in place. What held them together was only giant wooden pegs! Amazing.

In the 1600, Shakespeare's plays were performed for the working folks at 1 p per show standing up. For those desiring to sit in the stalls or the gentlemen's box i.e where the gentitlity sat be prepared to pay up to GBP75. In fact when the queen attended one of the shows at the teater, she sat at the gentlemen's box. There were also seats or stalls with railings for the more bawdy kind. The railings were to prevent the drunkards from falling over onto the stage below! In those days going to the teater like the Globe Teater was like going to the cinema. On the spur of the moment I decided to buy the last seat in the gentlemen's box i.e. seat no: 6 for the 7.30 pm show of Anne Boleyn. Tim decided to spend the time taking pictures of London after.

However as the guided tour ended about 11 am and we had time to spare before the show at night, we decided to visit Kew Gardens.