Shakespeare's Globe Theater and the Groundlings

A View from the Balcony

CHECK OUT THE GORGEOUS CEILING

ME AS A HUMBLED GROUNDLING

Shakespaere Globe located in South London very clsoe to the Tate Modern.
It's easy to get to just take the London Bridge Tube and exit on Borough High Street.You can walk easily for about 5 minutes under the bridge pass Borough Market and past the old Clink prison.

Shakespeare’s Globe Trust is dedicated to the experience and international understanding of Shakespeare in performance. Uniquely its work celebrates the fact that the greatest dramatic poet in the English language lived and worked in London and that the cradle of English theatre was on Bankside by the River Thames.

The Theater is also dedicated to other live theater including the works by Shakespeare's contemparies like Marlowe and other Greek dramaturgs like Euripedes.When I went I saw As You Like It last week. The play are often consistent in acting, costume and stage and true to the the time period they portray. The next play to be seen is Love Labour's Lost.

At SHAKESPEARE'S GLOBE you can sit in the balcony section tickets range from £20 - £35 pounds,it's nice if you just want to relax, take in the elegantly painted frescoes and cuddle with your date ( especially in autumn it gets bloody cold).You must see the plays once as a groundling, tickets are remarkeably cheap, only £5. Back in Shakespeare's time you would have had to pay just a pence. Get your tickets early in the season online or at the box office, because tickets will sell out and if you're a bit of a sissy and don't enjoy standing up for 2 hours straight(kills your feet)you'll have to resort to be a humbled GROUNDLING

The Globe Theatre Groundlings stood in the Yard, or pit, to watch the plays being performed. This was the cheapest part of the theatre, there were no seats and the entrance price was 1d which was equivalent to about 10% of a days wages. The members of the audience who stood in the pit were often referred to as 'Groundlings'. I actually enjoyed Seeing Shakespeare's plays (Trollius and Cressida and then As You Like it), as a groundling more fun than in the balcony, because you are right in front of the actors and often they come off the stage and interact with the audience, which only adds to the heightened excitement and drama!!

The Shakespeare Globe season runs from April until October. Do try to see a play in the summer when the weather is still warm and balmy. Grab a picnic, bring some fried chicken or your veggie pasties and a pint, stash it all in your back pack and take in the rich language and poetry of Shakespeare, you won't regret it.


Shakespeare's Globe
http://www.shakespeares-globe.org
Bankside
21 New Globe Walk, London, SE1 9DT
020 7902 1400

Southwark London- The London of Shakespeare and Christopher Marlowe

This is my favorite village of all the villages in London. Southwark is replete with old world charm and has the oldest Market, Borough Market that goes back to the 13th Century. Southwark Cathedral used to be the old church of Shakespeare and his contemporary Christopher Marlow. Many films have been shot in these alleyways and bypasses. The cobble stone streets remind me of another era. St Pauls Cathedral was built in 1677 by the Architecture Christopher Wren. You can see it from London's south bank. A hot humid August day is the best time to see it from along London's southbank.


Besides all these great historical riches Southwark has, one of the best thing about this side of town is the Fresh Cut Chips (No frozen chips here)
near the Borought Market!! More in detail about the charms of Southwark.



SLIDE SHOW:

Part 2: Facts about the Mysterious Stonehenge

For Facts about Stonehenge click this link.


-Stonehenge was built between 3100 – 1100 BCE.
-The circle was aligned with the midsummer sunrise, the midwinter sunset, and the most southerly rising and northerly setting of the moon.
-The ground plan and structural engineering of Stonehenge incorporate sophisticated mathematical and geometrical understandings on the part of its builders.
-There were two types of stones used in its construction: the ‘bluestones’ (weighing as much as four tons and brought from 240 miles away) and the Sarsen stones (averaging eighteen feet in height and twenty-five tons in weight).
-It has been estimated that the construction of Stonehenge required more than thirty million hours of labor.
-More than nine hundred stone rings exist in the British Isles. Of these, Stonehenge is the most well known.
-The megalithic monuments of Britain and Europe predate those of the eastern Mediterranean, Egyptian, Mycenaean and Greek cultures.
-The Druids had nothing to do with the construction of the stone rings. Druids are known to have conducted their ritual activities mostly in sacred forest groves.


MORE ON JANE AUSTEN IN BATH in the next SABRINAS LONDON DIARIES

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Bath in August

Walking down the cobble stone streets of Bath,I am transported immediately to 1827 Regency,England.I imagine I am wearing an elegant, flowing Empire waist dress(made in the finest dupioni Italian silk in perhaps ecru or champagne )and I am sneaking away to meet my paramour on a clandestine riverboat down the River Avon, because I am supposed to be marrying my boring rich cousin.( He's probably hunting somewhere in the nearby woods or smoking a pipe in his drawing room).Such was the life of many a young girl in Cromwell's England , since women weren't allowed to work or inherit their father's property.

When I was Bath I sampled afternoon tea at Hands Tea House,(7a York Street,just a few minutes from Bath Abbey)and had my typical Earl Grey tea and vegan brownie.Bath in August was gorgeous with fluffy white clouds and blue skies (think baroque rococo paintings Fragonard or Boucheron)and abundant sunshine. People everywhere socializing and lolligagging on the verdant green.I discovered the famous Assembly Rooms where in Jane Austen's novels they held the very elegant balls where debutantes would do the rounds in order to find a husband.

Next time,will plan a trip back where I will go to Therma Hot Springs Sessions start at just £22 and there is a roof top pool,that sounds like fun. (I better go before it starts raining again.Yikes !)Also, a Jane Austen Walking Tour is de riguer which starts at the Bath Abbey on Saturdays and Sundays at 11 a.m.(only £5). I am planning my next trip already. Will have to go back to spend a few days, because being a Jane Austen fan I can't get enough of this Georgian city.

Bath,England, is a unique city; its hot springs, Roman Baths, splendid Abbey and Georgian stone crescents have attracted visitors for centuries. Bath,one of England's most beautiful places to visit. Bath is the only thermal hot spring in the UK. Set in rolling Somerset countryside, just over 100 miles west of London, it is a beautiful and unforgettable place to visit. Designated a World Heritage Site, Bath was the first city in England to receive this prestige and proudly stands on the slopes of the River Avon. On my tour of Bath, I took in the Bath Abbey, which saw the coronation of the first British King in 973AD. I marvelled at the famous Pulteney Bridge, modelled on the Florentine Ponte Vecchio. Both are consdiered to be one of the most romantic bridges in Europe.

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MORE ON JANE AUSTEN IN BATH

Some Interesting Links:
The Assembly Rooms
http://www.museumofcostume.co.uk/

The Jane Austen Centre
http://www.janeausten.co.uk

Thermae Bath Spa
http://www.thermaebathspa.com