Year 5 Tour the
Globe!
In the Autumn
term, Year 5 visited the world-famous Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre in London!
We arrived on
a cloudy but warm Monday morning, raring to go! We met our guide, Scott, for
the day, who quickly told us a barrage of facts about where the original Globe
was built and why it was moved. Once we walked inside, we had a good look
around the theatre. The first thing that struck us as we walked into the
theatre was that it has no roof! This is because the Globe is a reconstruction
of a theatre built about 400 years ago; the original theatre had no roof so
that daylight could get in and you could see what was happening. As there were
no electric lights back then, it would have been dangerous and expensive to
light the building with candles.
We also
noticed that the seats stopped some way short of the front of the stage and
learned that this is because some people buy less expensive tickets and stand
to watch plays.
We then had a
good look at the stage: it is beautiful! The roof is painted with the sun, moon
and an array of angels. Scott, explained that actors can even be lowered from
the ceiling above the stage if necessary. Scott also said that any action that
takes place that high up was taking place in the heavens, in a play. Therefore,
the action on stage would be action on earth, and any character who appeared
from underneath the stage, was coming
up from Hell!
We thought
that the character of Banquo from Macbeth, as a ghost, might come up from Hell,
and we thought that the witches most definitely would!
Next, we got
up onto the stage…
We wasted no
time in jumping into the action, quickly rehearsing the famous, “Is this a dagger I see before me?” line
from Macbeth! (Year 5 are Macbeth experts – we have been learning about it this
half term, and we can tell you the plot, the settings, the main characters, and
the motivation for their actions!)
We went
backstage, and felt some of the excitement professional actors must feel
getting ready to go onstage, then burst onto the stage to loudly exclaim our
line!
Afterwards,
we went to one of the Globe’s practice rooms, and went even further into
character. We thought about how the Scots and the Norwegians would try and
intimidate each other before battle, how the witches would move and look, and
how Lady Macbeth feels about her husband, Macbeth.
After a quick
lunch we headed back to school!