A Night at the Globe: London, Day 6

Tonight, I got to have my quintessential London tourist experience, complete some professional development, and fulfill a childhood dream all at once. I got to see Romeo & Juliet, the Shakespeare play I teach, at the Globe theater as a groundling (the cheap people who stand at the foot of the stage and throw popcorn at the players -- ok, not really the last part, but we technically could have if we wanted). While I was bouncing up and down all the way into the theater and sputtering my excitement to Shelley, I had to slow down long enough to explain that I have loved Shakespeare since 4th grade, when I was in my first "Shakespeare" play (a slightly watered-down version of The Tempest). I have since been in two more Shakespeare productions and seen dozens more, I've taken Shakespeare classes in college, and the favorite unit of both my students and me this year was definitely Romeo & Juliet. This was not just a cool experience for me; it was definitely the culmination of my trip to London.

There was only one small problem: as of this morning, we did not actually have tickets. I accidentally misread the guidebook and believed that you were supposed to purchase "groundling" tickets (the standing-room-only tickets right in front of the stage) the day of the performance, so I did not bother to reserve tickets ahead of time. When Shelley asked me to double-check this two days before our trip, I discovered that the guidebook actually said you could possibly get tickets day of, but only if someone returned them. I was devastated, but Shelley said we should still try to see if we could get the day-of tickets and reminded me several times that if I didn't, I would regret it. So, an hour and a half before the show, we "queued up" in the "return tickets" line (which sounded to me like we wanted to return them, but apparently this was right), and just when we were starting to give up hope, the not-so-friendly ticket lady emerged with two tickets, exactly where we wanted them, at exactly the right price. As the British would say, lovely. (Here's me with my ticket, program, and huge chocolate muffin: ready to go!)


In addition to the incredibly thrilling experience of seeing a Shakespeare play in the Globe, with authentic Shakespearean costumes (made all by hand) and instruments (only the ones that would have been used in his day), not to mention getting to stand on the ground right next to the stage and eat chocolate and drink Diet Coke (ok, not totally authentic but resemblant of the original "carnival" atmosphere), the performance itself was also the best performance of Romeo & Juliet that I have ever seen. The actors spoke incredibly quickly, and transition time was absolutely seemless, which cut down on the length of what can be a very drawn-out and melodramatic performance. The lead actors also did phenomenal interpretations of their characters: Juliet (who was played by a recent high-school graduate) did a very good job of seeming like a naive, hormonal, love-sick teenager; she's often played as this sultry or deeply passoinate woman, when in reality she's thirteen and clueless, so this actress played up her innocence and really got the awkward first-love moments so well that she had the audience laughing out loud at their first encounter and crying by the end. Romeo also managed the teenager role well; normally, by the end of the play, I am so sick of Romeo's whining that I am absolutely ready for him to die, but this particular actor portrayed Romeo's various dramatic mood shifts not as pathetic flights of fancy, but as passions that are unfortunately swayed fairly regularly by unpredictable (but also uncontrollable) hormones. I found myself actually enjoying when Romeo came on stage and sorry when he died -- both probably good signs.

(Shelley just before the show started -- notice HOW CLOSE we are to the stage! The people in front of us were leaning on it!)

When I got back to the apartment where we're staying, one of our hosts asked me if this was "it" for me, and I think the answer is clearly yes. I have loved my time in both London and Paris, but I feel like nothing can completely top this experience. Then again, there is tea tomorrow with scones and clotted cream; I'm a huge fan of cream, so I'll keep you posted.

"A thousand times goodnight...parting is such sweet sorrow."