The Globe
The Globe theatre was constructed in 1599, out of timber taken from the Theatre. It stood next to the Rose (theatre), on the south side of the Thames, and was the most elaborate and attractive theatre yet built. The Globe was designed and constructed for the chamberlain’s men by Cuthbert Burbage, son of the theatres creator James Burbage. The lease for the land on which the Globe stood was co owned by Burbage and his brother Robert, and by a group of five actors, including Shakespeare. Much of Shakespeare’s wealth came from his holdings in the Globe.
The Globe was the primary home of Shakespeare’s acting company beginning late 1599, and it is a possibility the “as you like it” was written especially for that occasion. On June 29, 1613 during a performance of Henry the eighth, a misfired cannon ball set the Globes thatched roof on fire and the whole theater was consumed. Swift reconstruction did take place and the Globe reopened to the public within a year, but with the addition of a tiled roof. The theatre lasted until 1644 at which time it was demolished and housing was quickly built where it once stood.
The exterior appearance of the Globe can only be pieced together from sketches of the theater found in sweeping Elizabethan city scenes, and the interior appearance from the drawing of the swan theatre. From these images we can describe the Globe as a hexagonal structure with an inner court about 55 feet across. It was three stories high and had no roof. The open country yard and three semicircular galleries could together hold more than 1500 people. The stage had two primary parts, the outer stage which was a rectangular platform projecting into the courtyard, from the back wall. Above it was a thatched roof and hangings but no wings at the very back of the outer stage. This stage was used by actors who were in a scene but not directly involved in the immediate action of the play, and it was also used when a scene takes place in an inner room.
Under the floors of the outer and inner stages was a large cellar called “hell”, allowing for the dramatic appearance of ghosts and the like. This cellar was probably as big as the two stages combined above it, and it was accessed by two or more trap doors on the outer stage and one trap door “the grave trap”, as scholars call it, on the inner stage. Actors in “hell’ would be encompassed by darkness, with the only light coming from tiny holes in the floor or from the tiring house stairway at the very back of the cellar. Rising from behind the stages was the tiring house, the three story section of the playhouse that contained the dressing rooms, the prop room, the musician’s gallery and connecting passageways. The tiring house was enclosed in curtains at all times so the less dramatic elements of play production would be hidden from the audience. Two doors on either side of the tiring house allowed the actors entrance onto the stage. Sometimes an actor would come through the “middle door’ which really referred to the main floor curtains of the tiring house that led directly on the centre stage.
The three levels of the tiring house were each very different. The first level was essentially the inner stage when one was needed. Many times Shakespeare’s plays call for a scene within a scene, such as Miranda and Ferdinand playing chess as a back drop to the main scene in the Tempest; or a scene in which a character or item needs to be dramatically revealed, as we find in the Merchant of Venice, when Portia asks Nerissa to “draw aside the curtains” to show the caskets; or a scene that should take place in a small confining space, such as the Capulet’s tomb in Romeo and Juliet. For scenes such as these the actors would have pulled back the curtains on the outer stage to expose the tiring house as the inner stage. Moreover the plays often called for one of the characters eavesdropping from behind a curtain or door. The tiring house was used in this case as well, because at its very rear, even further back than the inner stage floor was a tiny room hidden by a set of drapes. These floor length drapes or dyed cloth hangings were suspended from the ceiling, concealing the actor. The drapes of the first floor tiring house would have hidden Falstaff in Henry the fourth, when the sheriff comes to the door of the tavern, and would have cloaked Polonius right before he is killed by hamlet, just to name two situations.
The second level of the tiring house contained a central balcony stage in the middle undoubtedly used multiple times in the production of Romeo and Juliet; a small window stage on each side of the balcony, directly above the side doors on the first floor, used when up to four characters had to be seen from a window; and a curtained inner room behind the balcony stage, that served the same purpose as the inner room on the first floor of the tiring house.
The third level consisted of a central music gallery and two large lofts on either side of it, used as storage and dressing rooms. In rare instances the orchestra was seen by the audience, when select members would come down to the main stage to accompany a dancer or a chorus, but in most cases the musicians played in the third floor curtained gallery, hidden from site. The lofts holding the props and instruments were always closed off from the public. In the Elizabethan theatre extraordinary amounts of money were spent on costumes and the Globes storage area would have been overflowing with beautiful clothing.
Over the three story tiring house was a superstructure composed of huts, resting on a protecting roof (also referred to as a stage cover), held up by giant posts rising from the main platform. It would appear from drawings of the Bank side that every playhouse contemporaneous with the Globe had a superstructure of one of multiple huts, but the Globes huts, or “heavens’, seem the most elaborate. In the floor of the superstructure were several trap openings allowing props to hang down over the stage or actors to descend to the floor, suspended by wires concealed under their costumes. The cannon that was so often fired during battle and coronation scenes was located in the huts, and so too was the trumpeter who heralded the beginning of a performance. Atop the huts of the Globe and of every Bankside theatre stood the playhouse flagpole. When raised the flag was a signal to people from miles around that a play would be staged that afternoon. The flag continued to wave until the end of each performance. No one knew exactly when they would see the flag again; for the Elizabethan theatre communities lived in uncertain times and were at the mercy of harsh weather, plague, and puritanical government officials.
The Elizabethan playhouses were open to the public eye at every turn, and scenery could not be changed in between scenes because there was no curtain to drop. It is no coincidence that in all of Shakespeare’s plays, the scene, no matter how dramatic or climatic, ends on a denumount, with the actors walking off or being carried of the stage. If the play required a change of place in the next scene, most times the actors would not leave the stage at all, and it would be up to the audience to imagine the change had occurred. If props were used, they were usually placed at the beginning of the play, and often times would be unnecessary as the performance went on, but would remain on the stage regardless. For very large objects that were vital in one scene but became an obstacle in the next scene, it is most likely that the action was halted for their prompt removal. Due to lack of props and scenery, the acting troupes relied very heavily on costumes. Even though Elizabethan audiences were deprived of eye catching background scenes, they were never disappointed with the extravagant, breathtaking clothes that were a certainty at every performance.
The original globe was built for William Shakespeare’s company of players on the south bank of Thomas in 1599, during the reign of Elizabeth 1. it was an immediate success and soon became the most popular playhouse in London. The new globe has risen again only a few hundred yards from the original site. It is a meticulous reconstruction of the first globe, the result of 30 years work inspired by the tireless enthusiasm and vision of the late Sam Wanamaker.