EXPERIENCE
The play's the thing
USHA MUKUNDA
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While the Globe Theatre recreates the ambience of the late 1500s, the Bard's plays have a timeless feel.
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Labour of love: The reconstructed Globe Theatre.
WE were in London and aquiver with excitement. This very evening we were off to see William Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet" at the Globe Theatre on the south bank of the Thames river. This theatre was completed in 1996 and was the result of an extraordinary labour of love by Sam Wanamaker, an American actor, producer and director. It is actually a near-faithful reproduction of the original theatres where Shakespeare's plays were produced in the late 1500s and early 1600s.
Careful recreation
To achieve this amazing feat, experts used old pictures, clues from texts of plays, descriptions by visitors of the time, archaeological findings and even building contracts from Elizabethan times! Sadly, Sam Wanamaker himself did not live to see the completed project. Three years after his death, the Globe Theatre opened for its first summer season in 1997. The structure is lime-washed, timbered and thatched as it was in Shakespearean times. In fact, during a performance of " Henry the VIII " in 1613, the stage cannon shot at the roof by mistake and ignited the thatch. The theatre was reduced to ashes. (But never fear, the present Globe theatre has used fire-resistant materials and has one added exit.) It was rebuilt, and functioned till 1642, when the Puritan government shut down all places of entertainment! Two years later, it was demolished to make way for tenements.
Coming back to the present, there was an added frisson to my excitement. In 1994, I had visited the construction site with my daughter and the supervising engineer was amazingly responsive to our literary curiosity. He actually took us around the site and helped us visualise how it would look when completed. And now we were going to watch a performance there!
A different space
The first thing that strikes you as you enter the theatre space is how small it appears to be. But when the play is about to begin, you realise that the "groundlings" form the majority of the audience. This space is a tradition going back to Shakespearean times when a large number of the common folk would crowd the front of the stage and provide raucous feedback to the players. These would be on the ground as opposed to the others on raised seating. Hence their name. So here they were, a large crowd in the best location at the cheapest price. Ah, but here's the rub, they can only stand and watch. When I saw some older people in that section, I wondered if they would last the course, but I should have had more faith in the Bard. He held them transfixed and upright for two and a half hours!
We had seats way up on top at the extreme corner. I sat ruefully staring at the stage end-wise, trying to swallow my disappointment. But as the play unfolded, I realised how attuned the players are to the spectators. Entire conversations were conducted facing us or the other end. In fact there was an intimacy that was utterly captivating. Fights erupted in all directions and in the balcony scene, Juliet spoke to a restless and distracted Romeo who paced from one side to the other! They made sure we got our money's worth.
Contemporary issues
What of the play? It was an "original practices" production which means it was performed in Elizabethan costume and style. But the angst, the experiences and the issues were sharp and fresh. In the U.K., there has been a conscious move to attract the present youth to Shakespearean theatre by highlighting the contemporariness of the plays and by having actors of mixed origins. We were told about the high suicide rate among young people in the U.K. and how distress in love and life contributes to their taking this extreme step. In response to this situation, a charitable group called "The Samaritans" has been working for 50 years to help, counsel and support these unhappy youngsters. The Globe Theatre's productions that season were about star-crossed lovers and the individuals who helped them. For example, in "Romeo and Juliet," the nurse and the friar were identified as the samaritans. This was a revealing lens through which to view Shakespeare's plays. The other productions were " Much Ado about Nothing" and "Measure for Measure."
Unmindful of the chill winds and persistent rain seeping into our bones from the open sky overhead, we gazed unmovingly at the players as they struggled with their passions and problems. Earlier in the day on a tour of the place, we had watched a scene being rehearsed between Romeo and Juliet. Seeing them now in their Elizabethan costumes, we could hardly believe that a few hours earlier, they had been in casual wear, going over their moves and lines. Now it all seemed perfect! At last and alas, it was all over and we dragged our feet as we left the Globe Theatre, looking back time and again to imprint the memory of the scene and the location. As we crossed the Thames, over the new Millennium Bridge, I could see the outlines of other buildings that had stood in Shakespeare's time and I went home with that feeling of timelessness which is inherent in all of the Bard's plays.
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