“I like this place and could willingly waste my time in.” A month travelling across England to see stage adaptations from the Bard himself makes me agree with his sentiment! As part of our EN 333 course, Shakespeare, our class attended four productions of Shakespeare plays across the country. Two at the restored Elizabethan playhouse, the Globe (Much Ado About Nothing and Richard III), one local production in Oxford (Twelfth Night), and one in the Bard’s hometown, Stratford-upon-Avon (As You Like It). As an avid Shakespeare lover myself, each stage play had its own charm. Richard III with its modernized setting, Twelfth Night being staged at the local Oxford old prison, and As You Like It with its lack of scenery, forcing the audience to focus on the characters. However, the show that took the cake for me was the Globe’s performance of Much Ado About Nothing. This Shakespearean comedy has been a favorite of mine since high school and seeing it performed at the Shakespearean theater was something I finally got to cross off my bucket list. The Globe, which burned down in 1613, was reconstructed by Shakespeare fanatic Sam Wanamaker and is historically accurate to what the Bard’s playhouse would’ve been like in the late sixteenth century: no ceiling, wooden benches for seats, and cheap standing tickets (cheekily called “groundlings”). As for the Much Ado performance, I absolutely loved how Ekow Quartey (from Harry Potter) and Amalie Vitale as Benedict and Beatrice! They played the roles of an Elizabethan enemies-to-lovers couple perfectly. The set was also gorgeous, following an blue and orange theme (from a line about oranges in the play). I’d highly recommend visiting the Globe if, like me, you’re obsessed with Shakespeare or theater.
