Unlock The World Of Shakespeare At The Globe Theatre
To rebuild or not to rebuild, that was the question. The answer? Get it done. Thanks largely to an initiative by American actor Sam Wanamaker, London again has a rendition of the Globe Theatre where in the 1500s William Shakespeare made a name for himself. The new version of the theatre, opened in 1997, stayed as true as possible to the original, but due to certain restrictions only has 1,400 seats (the original Globe had close to 3,000).
The original Globe Theatre as erected in 1599, near the Thames River, by its resident troupe, the Lord Chamberlain’s Men, within which Shakespeare was an actor; he evidently began writing plays along the way... The theatre company staged the works of Ben Johnson and Christopher Marlowe until the building was engulfed by fire in 1613. A new theatre was built soon thereafter, but closed at various times due to situations such a Puritan protest and disease.
The current theatre, Shakespeare’s Globe opened its first season with a production of Shakespeare’s “Henry V”, and continues to thrive. It should be clear, however, that no part of the original theater exists today. Visitors will enjoy world-class theatrical productions in a very similar setting to Elizabethan times.