Shakespeare's Globe

-Hello, I'm Callum Robertson and this is Entertainment. I'm not in the studio today I'm on location on the south bank of the River Thames in the centre of London. 393 years ago today on June 29th 1613 one of the most famous theatres in the world was destroyed by fire. The Globe theatre on London's South Bank was the theatrical home of William Shakespeare and in this programme I'm going to be taking a little look at the history of the theatre which Shakespeare called in his play Henry V, this
Wooden O. Although the original Globe theatre has long since disappeared there is a marvellous reconstruction here now on the South Bank. I've now come inside the marvellous modern 'wooden O' I'm speaking to Patrick Spottiswoode who's the Director of Globe Education to find out a little bit more. Patrick, why did Shakespeare refer to the Globe as 'this wooden O'?
-It is a round building. It is in fact a twenty sided wooden O, a polygonal O. And it is made of oak in the main, and it's an open air O so people gather round in the theatre to hear a play.
-And is that design typical of theatres of the time?
-The outdoor theatres yes, I mean in English we say 'gather round' we don't say 'gather square'. And you gather round to get close to hear a story. And these were great story-telling venues and thousands of people would want to get close to the actors. So the circle enables you to get close to the actor.
-This reconstruction which we're in now, how close is it in where it is and how it looks to the original?
-We're about 150 metres from where it originally stood. In terms of whether this Globe is like the first Globe of 1599 well we, we think it is because we have no photographs of course, no video, so we're reliant on a mixture of evidence as to
what the original Globe was like. We hope we've built the Globe like the original but we cannot put our hands on our hearts and say it's exactly like. It's as near as we can get.
-The original as I mentioned at the beginning of this programme was destroyed by fire in 1613. Can you tell us a little bit about its history before that? When was it built and what was it used for?
-Well it was built in 1599 and Shakespeare and a group of actors put money together to build the theatre. It was the first time ever in England actors had paid to build a theatre. So that was very special. And it became the number one theatre in London as Shakespeare's company became the number one acting company of London. So it became from 1599 as the number one venue for theatre and certainly the number one venue for Shakespeare's plays until 1613. And in 1613 they put on a play about Henry VIII and they had a cannon effect to announce the arrival of the king on stage. But it was a special effect that went badly wrong because a spark from the cannon flew up and hit the roof which is made of thatch. It caught fire and the theatre burnt to the ground during a performance. 
-Which of Shakespeare's plays were first performed here, which of the big ones which people might know around the world were performed here?
-Well I suppose one of the most famous, Romeo and Juliet was not first performed at the Globe. It was written two or three years before the Globe was built. The first play that we know to have been put on at the Globe, the first recorded performance, it was Julius Ceasar. We know that As You Like It was put on at the Globe, we know Hamlet, King Lear, Othello, these are plays that were Globe plays. But plays like Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare had a career before the Globe was built.
-This is Entertainment. Today I'm talking to Patrick Spottiswoode the director of Globe Education about the Globe Theatre on London's South Bank.Patrick I wonder could you tell us now about how the new Globe Theatre came to be built?
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