The Globe Theatre

With the end of a lease on the Blackfriars Theatre in 1597, The Lord Chamberlain’s Men (Shakespeare, J & R Burbage, G Byran, John Hemminges, Augustine Phillips, Thomas Pope and Will Sly) had no where to perform their plays. This acting troupe desperately needed a new playhouse and fast as their rivals, The Admiral’s Men already had ‘The Rose’ to perform their plays. Clearly the Lord Chamberlain’s Men would need a theatre to compete. In 1598 came the decision to build a brand new theatre: ‘The Globe’.

Sure enough the playhouse was completed, opening in 1599. Not only could the theatre hold up to 3000 patrons but it turned out to be a good earner, earning Shakespeare and his troupe both money from hiring out the theatre and from ticket sales for their own performances there.

Located near the river Thames, Shakespeare’s theatre was not actually in central London but in an outlining district called Southwark. Southwark had a "colourful" reputation of certainly not being the place to find respectable etiquette. Yet the famous theatre, by attracting commoners and upper classes alike, brought all the people of London together in a region renowned for bear-baiting and other less than respectable activities. But still class divisions remained; commoners were in the courtyard with England’s gentry and nobility seated in the galleries or the balconies.

‘The Globe’ was a large circular structure, three stories high. A small straw hatched roof only partially covered the circular structure, giving it an appearance very much like a modern day football stadium where the centre is uncovered. In the centre, the 5 feet high main stage extended out. At the back of this stage, there were two doors and a main entrance with a central curtain. Behind this were changing rooms for the actors. To get back on stage, there were two side doors and a curtain at the back of the stage that was used as a backdrop. Above this stage was a balcony. A balcony famously used in Romeo and Juliet when Romeo hears Juliet cry "Romeo, Romeo wherefore art thou Romeo". Also the backdrop would have been pulled aside in The Tempest to reveal the innocent scene of Miranda playing chess with Ferdinand and was again used for Hamlet’s stabbing of Polonius in Hamlet. In the middle of two other balconies acting as theatre boxes. On the third level was a small house like structure supported by columns from the stage where announcements were made and the theatre's flag would often fly, advertising plays being performed.

Tragedy struck the theatre when, during a performance of Henry VIII on 29^th June 1613, a cannon was fired lighting the thatched roof and burning the structure to the ground. Rebuilt just one year later, the famous ‘Globe Theatre’ opened its doors again for business but on the opposite side of the Thames river, with the original's straw thatched roof now replaced with tiles.