Shakespeare's Globe

The model was made from details found from historical etchings and prints of the original Globe Theatre. This required quite a bit of research as there were actually three Globe Theatre buildings, and inaccuracies abound. This model represents the Globe as it probably looked around the time that Shakespeare's plays were presented there (1599-1608).-Paper Toys.

Shakespeare's Globe is one the sights of London that I saw as a floated by on a boat. It is an interesting looking building, but to be honest Shakespeare's plays have never been my favorite. There is a little too much Old English for me, I tend to get lost in the soliloquies.

I like this little paper model of The Globe, it reminds me of those 3D jigsaw puzzles that were all the rage a few years back. It does take a bit of skill with a pair of scissors and a careful hand with the folding.

Bill Bryson wrote an excellent little book about Shakespeare, which talked about how little we actually know about the man. There are not plans or images for the actual theater that Shakespeare's plays were preformed during Shakespeare's time. No one knows how Shakespeare spelled his name, not even, it would seem, William Shakespeare himself. And it seems that William Shakespeare would have disappeared like all the other playwrights of his time had not a couple of gentlemen decided to publish a book of his plays. This has lead to all manner of debate about who wrote the Shakespeare plays and if Shakespeare was just a brand name like Warner Brothers. Good old Will is a source of infinite debate and argument.

As always, things are going on in the current incarnation of the Globe Theatre. Shakespeare’s Globe Exhibition and Theatre Tour will be open throughout the Autumn half-term (26 –30 October) and is a perfect destination for families wishing to discover more about Shakespeare and the London in which he lived and worked. During half-term regular live demonstrations such as swordfighting and costume dressings will give families a stimulating introduction to one of the world’s most iconic working theatres.

Open throughout the year, Shakespeare’s Globe Exhibition and Theatre Tour is housed beneath the reconstructed Globe Theatre on Bankside. The exhibition explores the remarkable story of the Globe, and brings Shakespeare’s world to life using modern technology and traditional crafts with a range of interactive displays and live demonstrations exploring costume, music and special effects.

Also included with the exhibition ticket is a tour of the Globe Theatre that will bring the extraordinary home of Shakespeare’s theatre to life. The Guide-storytellers will take you on a fascinating half-hour tour of the auditorium, vividly recreating colourful stories of the 1599 Globe and the reconstruction process in the 1990s, and of how the wooden ‘O’ works today as an imaginative and experimental space.

Shakespeare’s Globe Exhibition: Open all year round
Venue: Shakespeare’s Globe Exhibition and Theatre Tour, SE1
Opening Times: 10am – 5pm (Last theatre tour is at 5pm)
Tickets: Adults £10.50; Children (aged 5 – 15) £6.50; Students (with valid ID) £8.50; Family (up to 2
adults and 3 children) £28

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Shakespeare's Globe Theater

Remember that you are a human being with a soul and the divine gift of articulate speech, that your native language is the language of Shakespeare and Milton and The Bible-Prof Henry Higgins.

Bernard Woolley: As they say, it's a custom more honoured in the breach than in the observance.
Jim Hacker: Oh really, Bernard, must you and Humphrey really always express yourself in this roundabout and pompous way? "More honoured in the breach than the observance"! Must you always distort and destroy the most beautiful language in the world - the language of Shakespeare?
Bernard Woolley: That is Shakespeare, Prime Minister.

William Shakespeare, like Mark Twain and Emily Dickinson is forced upon an unsuspecting and unappreciative youth. When I had to read Romeo and Juleit in high school it was quite simply baffling. Filled with words I had never heard, poems that weren't really poems, prose that didn't seem to be prose, and a teacher telling us How Wonderful Shakespeare was. Over the years I have gained a bit more of an appreciation for the The Bard's works.

I am rather fond of that whole little genre of Shakespeare plays rendered in alternate universes-Richard III was bloody amazing! And Romeo and Juliet as Mob families was a bit of fun as well.

But what about Shakespeare as old Will was meant it to be? Well, head over to Shakespeare's Globe Theater for a feel of the Good Old Days. For example Shakespeare's Globe Theater has the first Thatched Roof in London since the Great Fire. Lots of fresh sunlight for lighting. Some times all male casts are used, just as they were in Shakespeare's day.

There is the Globe Exhibition-which has been refurbished with most exhibits re-presented to improve your journey through the history of Shakespeare and the Globe. Find out about extravagant Elizabethan costumes, Renaissance instruments and how they were used, and the dramatic stories of the first Globe crossing the Thames, and the new Globe being reconstructed on Bankside.

This year the shows at Shakespeare's Globe Theater include the performance of his most searching tragedy, King Lear; his most wild and inventive comedy, A Midsummer Night’s Dream; his most thrilling and savage satire, Timon of Athens, and his invention of a new form, the sit-com, in The Merry Wives of Windsor.

It's a very pretty building which brings back a bit of the good old days. While London is full of real old buildings, Shakespeare's Globe doesn't have it's going to fall over at any moment feel to it. This is another London Attraction that should be on everyone lists of things to see, well, if they like Shakespeare anyway.