Treading the Boards

The weather in Olde London Towne has actually been glorious for the past week and a half, and while most of the daylight hours are spent working, we do try to make the most of the weekends. This past Sunday Brianne and I went down to Shakespeare's Globe Theatre on the south bank of the Thames for their annual free-entry day in honour of the Bard's birthday. Times being what they are, we're always on the lookout for any activity with the word FREE in the title.

We met up around noon with our pals Clare and Jonathan at The Swan, a lovely restaurant we've blogged on before. It's a little bar and brasserie attached to the Globe, offering lovely light fare for theatre patrons and the public. Brianne and Jonathan went for the soup of the day which B always raves about, while I tried a new English traditional dish, a pork pie. Tasty all around, if not the most filling.

We queued up after lunch and entered the Globe Exhibit (something that would've been £8 each any other day, huzzah!). We made our way through halls depicting the history of the Theatre and of Shakespeare, touching on costuming, sets, props, daily life, and the endeavour to build the modern theatre in the first place. Interesting, but a bit dry, and I was glad we were getting it for free. At the end of the educational halls, we came upon an actor portraying the young Shakespeare himself, giving away little prizes for those who could give him a line-reading of his work. Clare and Brianne earned little Globe-themed buttons, a fun trinket.

We made our way into the central gathering area of the exhibit, decked out in bunting with many activities and demonstrations all around. There was an opera singer on one stage and a combat troupe in another corner (not as good, I felt, as our combatant friends back in Toronto).

We poked around in the gift shop for a while, laughing once again at the plush Plague Rat dolls. There was also a video booth area where they were trying to set a world record by having every patron recorded reading two lines of Sonnet 29. All four of us did our part in this attempt.

The highlight of the day came at the very end. We aspiring actors all signed up for a workshop which gave us the chance to recite lines of Shakespeare on the actual stage of the Globe in front of the rest of the patrons! Everyone was given the option of reading from pre-printed excerpts, but we were allowed to perform anything we had from memory. It was an awesome feeling to step forth onto the stage (like every other stage, it felt smaller when you're ON it) and let 'er rip. Brianne did a piece from The Comedy of Errors, while I did a portion of the prologue to Henry V. It was a wonderful thrill to cap the day, dreaming of how great it would be to make such a playful game a reality. One day . . .