The Globe Theatre

The Globe Theatre have you ever seen a Shakespearean play if you have you probably saw it in an indoor theater with roof lights and comfortable seats but Shakespeare's plays were designed to be performed in a very different kind of place the Globe Theater the globe was built in 1599 by a company of actors called Lord Chamberlain's Men among its members and owners of the theatre was Shakespeare himself nobody really knows for sure what the globe looked like we are able to approximate its look by examining some old drawings and written accounts the globe was a

round or polygonal building the plays were staged during the day because the theatre was not lit the viewers could either stand in the pit or yard in front of the stage or sit down in the round galleries there was no roof over the pit so if it rained the viewers in the pit known as Groundlings would get wet the stage jutted out into the pit and was only a few feet high so that the groundlings though they had to stand and risk getting wet had the possibility of being very close to the actors the stage

had two trapdoors one in the ceiling and one in the floor which were called heaven and hell' the name of the globe comes from a Latin saying because all the world is a playground or a Shakespeare puts it in as you like it all the world's a stage and all the men and women merely players curiously the globe was not in London but just outside theatres were not allowed inside the city by the Puritans who were very serious people and considered theaters to be disruptive in 1613 the globe burned down when a stage cannon misfired

the following year it was rebuilt this second globe was eventually torn down some 30 years later after the Puritans had successfully banned theatre today a replica of the original globe exists in London it is a few hundred yards from its original location it was built with the same materials and construction methods as the original one in just a few years it has become one of London's icons there are other faithful reproductions of the globe around the world so if you want the true Shakespeare experience look for the globe closest to you there's one in Rome

too