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| Westminster Abbey |
Shakespeare's Globe was founded by the actor and director Sam Wanamaker, built about 230 metres from the site of the original theatre and opened in 1997 after a bit of back and forth with the local council who weren't overly excited about approving the building of the replica theatre. The site also includes the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, an indoor theatre. This is a smaller, candle-lit space based on the indoor playhouses of Jacobean London. Unfortunately it was being set up for a production, but going by images we viewed of the interior, it looks absolutely stunning. In Shakespeare's time the building would not have had the external oak beams on view, but all involved in the project agreed that it looked too beautiful to hide away under paint. It is the only thatch roof in London since the great fire, and as such there are sprinkler heads across the peak of the roof line and it is lined with fire retardant. It really is a gorgeous space.
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| Timeline of events in England and when Shakespeare's works were written |
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| Model of the theatre - a great deal of research and archaeology went into learning what the theatre looked like to inform this build |
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| Costumes made in the way they would have been fashioned in Shakespeare's time (no zips, buttons etc) |
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| Samples of velvet from the 1500s |
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| Musical instruments of the time |
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| Inside the theatre - lots of beautiful oak everywhere |
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| The stage set for a modernised production of Much Ado About Nothing (this version set in Mexico!) |
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| Benefactors' flagstones - 2 flagstones for Michael Palin and John Cleese - they tossed a coin to see who would get the larger stone, with the loser paying for both stones. John Cleese paid for both, but suggested to the theatre that for 300 pounds more they should spell Michael Palin's name incorrectly! They did! |
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| There was a good deal of negative blood between council and Wanamaker's project team early on. |
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| Props
We then headed across to the Tate Modern for a wander around. It was good to have a discussion with the boys that it is "okay to not understand art" and that as long as it causes them to think and question its a good thing. Believe me, there was plenty in there that we did not understand, but caused us to question. It was a really enjoyable experience exposing the boys to modern art.
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| Composition III - with Red, Blue and Yellow (Piet Mondrian) - have always loved the simplicity of this piece |
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| Using light to create art by passing it through a perspex disc - Yellow versus Purple (Olafur Eliasson) |
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| Radios of all different types and vintages stacked up emitting noise - kind of how my head feels after a day of teaching Babel (Cildo Meireles) |
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| Cannot find the name of this piece now, but the treads represent events that shape us. The threads at the beginning are the same threads at the end, but they are knotted, separated, joined and developed in many ways from top to bottom. |
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| The wibbly wobbly bridge (The Millennium Bridge) we walked across heading to find Julie a nice glass of gin |
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| Gin found and consumed! |
