Day 7: June 12, 2014

Today was incredible! It started out with my roommate and I (we do get along, I 'm just not a morning person) finding the Globe theatre. There was a misprint about what time we had to be there, so we showed up an hour early before we had to, so we grabbed lunch and talked about all of our future plans for the trip. She has a lot more planned out than I do.

We gathered for our tour of the Globe and learned so many cool facts. We were also allowed to talked pictures, so here are a few.

This is the ceiling of the Globe stage.

The entire stage is made out of wood. The support columns that you see are actual trees painted to look like marble. Unfortunately, you can't see any of the more detailed work, because they had to dress the stage in darkness for Titus, Even the usually open roof had temporary black cloth to make the bit seem a little darker and a little more eerie for the audience.

The stage is painted in sections. The ceiling, which I have pictures of is painted to represent the heavens. The stage is painted to represent Earth, with the Roman calendar painted across the top, below the stage is painted to represent Hell. There is even a trap door in the center of the stage that is used for such purposes, but is also used for graves, caves, and what ever else it's function may need to be. For Titus it was used as a grave/tomb and also as hiding place.

 

This is the view of the stage from one of the balcony seats just to show how high it is. In Shakespeare's Globe, several presumably drunk patrons (men) would sit in seats this high up with no railings to watch the show. As a result, there were several accidents and even some deaths. There were also accidents and deaths on stage as well. Besides the fire that destroyed the first Globe theatre but did not kill anyone, there was also an accidental shooting on stage, and an actor was accidentally stabbed, as well.

 

Here are some pictures of the boxes that were reserved for Lords and Ladies:

There were four boxes, two on each side of the stage. We were able to sit in one and every room is painted according to a certain theme. I took pictures of each of the painting in that room.

 

After our tour of inside the theatre, we were taken outside and shown bricks of all the patrons that helped in the reconstructing of the Globe in 1997. I took pictures of bricks of two actors from Monty Python.

 

Michael's name is misspelled on purpose. The story is that John paid for them both to have bricks, but told the brick maker to misspell John's name. They did, but to be fair, they made John's brick a lot smaller. Apparently, Michael had a good laugh when he found out about it and finally saw the finished product.

 

After our tour, we waited in line outside so that we would be able to stand close to the stage. Everyone in our group was a grounding and it was great to be so close to the stage and action. I didn't stand with the rest of my group, because I found a better spot standing in front of the stage left ramp. I was so close that during the production I had "blood" splattered on my water bottle, "vomit" sprayed on my legs, "wine" droplets throne over me, and at several times I was afraid of accidentally being hit or impaled by the actors running on and off stage with their spears, swords, and shields. It was also so incredibly exciting, because at the start of the performance I could of actually touched Indira Varma, who played Tamera, but who also plays Eller Ends in Game of Thrones and played in Rome as Niobe. She did a wonderful job as Tamera. Another actor in the play from Game of Thrones was Ian Felder. He played Marcus in Titus, and a Lanister on Robert Barathean's Council chamber in Game of Thrones.

 

Everyone involved in the production did a wonderful job. It was so great with a great mix of comedy one bloody horror. There were even incense burning on stage to create the metallic smell of blood in the air. Two girls in our group almost passed out, and at one point I even felt a little nauseous and had to Neal down for a bit. I also love their interpretation of the relationship between Lavinia and her soon to be husband. It was portrayed as if they were in love, and not as if he just claims her to be his in the passion of the moment. Despite being such a bloody play, there was also a lot of humor as well. Probably one of the best parts was when Tamera and her sons disguise themselves as Revenge, Rapine, and Murder. The dances they did in those red platform heels were crazy.

 

After the play we were all a little nauseous from the play itself and tired from standing for 3 hours so the majority of people just went back to Nido to lay down and rest for a little bit; including me. That concludes day 7. Sorry It's so late.