Each of the above pictures is the stage for one of the plays that we saw. From top to bottom:OTHELLO - at Gosden House School; ROMEO AND JULIET, TROILUS AND CRESSIDA, and MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM -- all at the Globe Theatre.
Pictures are not permitted during performances at the Globe. Pictures may be taken as the groundlings enter the yard.
The MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM stage is a Globe traveling company. They set the play in the 1920s and had only eight people in their troupe. That show had plenty of 1920s type music. The consensus was that the show was fun! There were criticisms about the sexualizing of Puck. However, for a traveling show, with almost no time for practice and set up, they did a marvelous job.
TROILUS AND CRESSIDA is one of Shakespeare's problem plays. Written around the same time as HAMLET, it wasn't performed until 1911 and probably not performed at The Globe. A private audience was most likely the first to see this play. Scholars are unsure whether it is a tragedy, a history, or a comedy. It has been played a great deal in the last few decades as a statement about war. I have read the play, listened to the play, and watched the play twice. This performance was the first time that I understood what was going on. This director cut more than 500 lines and added a few lines. It helped. The acting troupe was magnificent! Students might look at monologues from Cressida and Cassandra as well as the prologue and epilogue of this play.
The Gosden House performance, discussed on a previous blog, was staged at various locations around the luscious grounds. This picture was complete with a garden grown by the fourth grade students! The OTHELLO production was the most memorable moment of my time in London. Special needs students performing OTHELLO were no longer special needs students!
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