Shakespeare Magazine 01

Diary: Brooke Thomas
I’ve only been in my favourite place in the building once, but
it still beats the green room, the library, and the theatres hands
down for me. Stepping into the tiring house at Shakespeare’s
Globe feels like walking into a cathedral. It’s just a small, dark
space, just a room, but there’s something about the smell of warm
wood and the sunlight filtering through the grates that inspires
awe-filled silence. There’s nothing quite like the excitement and
apprehension that you feel when those doors open inwards, light
floods the sanctuary of the tiring house, and you see the ‘wooden
o’ from the actor’s point of view.
Shakespeare’s
Globe
The Globe theatre, and the new
Jacobean playhouse next door, are
the vision of American actor and
director Sam Wanamaker. Sam worked
tirelessly from 1970 until his death in
1993 to bring Shakespeare’s theatre
back to London. The third and current
incarnation of Shakespeare’s Globe
opened on London’s Bankside in
1997, just a street closer to the river
Globe was opened in 1599 by the
Lord Chamberlain’s Men. It hosted
Shakespeare’s greatest works, including
Macbeth, Hamlet, and King Lear.
Fun fact: the sofas in our green room are
comically oversized. They’re on a platform
and they’re twice as deep as any sofa I’ve
ever seen.
This is technically to accommodate
the huge costumes our actors wear, but it’s
also good for curling up with a cup of tea
and definitely not falling asleep because
it’s so comfortable. Never. Not even once.
Certainly not on a regular basis.
a day
A breath of fresh
air overlooking
the river Thames
on the roof
terrace.
SHAKESPEARE magazine 45