Shakespeare's Globe

Callum:  Hello, I'm Callum Robertson and this is Entertainment. I'm not in the studiotoday I'm on location on the south bank of the River Thames in the centre ofthLondon. 393 years ago today on June 29  1613 one of the most famoustheatres in the world was destroyed by fire.
　　The Globe theatre on London's South Bank was the theatrical 1 home of WilliamShakespeare and in this programme I'm going to be taking a little look at thehistory of the theatre which Shakespeare called in his play Henry V, thisWooden O.
　　Although the original Globe theatre has long since disappeared there is amarvellous reconstruction 2 here now on the South Bank.
　　I've now come inside the marvellous modern 'wooden O' I'm speaking toPatrick Spottiswoode who's the Director of Globe Education to find out a littlebit more. Patrick, why did Shakespeare refer to the Globe as 'this wooden O'?
　　Patrick:  It is a round building. It is in fact a twenty-sided wooden O, a polygonal 3 O.
　　And it is made of oak 4 in the main, and it's an open air O so people gather roundin the theatre to hear a play.
　　Callum:  And is that design typical of theatres of the time?
　　Patrick:  The outdoor theatres yes, I mean in English we say 'gather round' we don't say'gather square'. And you gather round to get close to hear a story. And thesewere great story-telling venues 6 and thousands of people would want to getclose to the actors. So the circle enables you to get close to the actor.
　　Callum:  This reconstruction which we're in now, how close is it in where it is and howit looks to the original?
　　Patrick:  We're about 150 metres from where it originally stood. In terms of whether thisGlobe is like the first Globe of 1599 well we, we think it is because we have nophotographs of course, no video, so we're reliant 7 on a mixture of evidence as towhat the original Globe was like. We hope we've built the Globe like theoriginal but we cannot put our hands on our hearts and say it's exactly like. It'sas near as we can get.
　　Callum:  The original as I mentioned at the beginning of this programme was destroyedby fire in 1613. Can you tell us a little bit about its history before that? Whenwas it built and what was it used for?
　　Patrick:  Well it was built in 1599 and Shakespeare and a group of actors put moneytogether to build the theatre. It was the first time ever in England actors hadpaid to build a theatre. So that was very special. And it became the number onetheatre in London as Shakespeare's company became the number one actingcompany of London. So it became from 1599 as the number one venue 5 fortheatre and certainly the number one venue for Shakespeare's plays until 1613.
　　And in 1613 they put on a play about Henry VIII and they had a cannon 8 effectto announce the arrival of the king on stage. But it was a special effect thatwent badly wrong because a spark from the cannon flew up and hit the roofwhich is made of thatch 9. It caught fire and the theatre burnt to the groundduring a performance.
　　Callum:  Which of Shakespeare's plays were first performed here, which of the big oneswhich people might know around the world were performed here?
　　Patrick:  Well I suppose one of the most famous, Romeo and Juliet was not firstperformed at the Globe. It was written two or three years before the Globe wasbuilt. The first play that we know to have been put on at the Globe, the firstrecorded performance, it was Julius Ceasar. We know that As You Like It wasput on at the Globe, we know Hamlet, King Lear, Othello, these are plays thatwere Globe plays. But plays like Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare had a careerbefore the Globe was built.
　　Callum:  This is Entertainment. Today I'm talking to Patrick Spottiswoode the directorof Globe Education about the Globe Theatre on London's South Bank. Patrick Iwonder could you tell us now about how the new Globe Theatre came to bebuilt?
　　Patrick:  Sam Wanamaker founded a charity to build the Globe in 1970. He dies in 1993.
　　Four years later the Globe finally opened for performances in 1997. So we're avery young theatre and it's thanks to people from outside of England, anAmerican and a South African who came to England and decided 10 that it wouldbe a good thing to rebuild Shakespeare's Globe. So thanks to them we have aGlobe Theatre again.
　　Callum:  Patrick Spottiswoode, thank you very much. That's all from this edition ofentertainment. Do join us again next time.