A night at the Globe

Honestly, I haven't attended this many cultural events since I don't know when. On Wednesday night, we were very fortunate to attend the play Anne Boleyn at Shakespeare's Globe.

I didn't get a good shot of the Globe Theatre myself. This one is from Flickr, posted by Kevin of Sydney.

The play was written by Howard Brenton and made its debut at the Globe last year. The description from the Globe's website:

Hunting through an old chest, the newly crowned James I discovers the controversial legacy of Anne Boleyn, Henry VIII’s notorious second wife. Time jumps back 70 years, when the witty and flirtatious Anne was in love with Henry, but also with the most dangerous ideas of her day. Conspiring with the exiled William Tyndale, she plots to make England Protestant – forever.

A celebration of a great English heroine, Anne Boleyn leaps between generations to reveal the debt the outrageous but scholarly James owed to Anne when he shrewdly reconciled England’s religious factions by creating his common, ‘authorised’ Bible.

As for the theater, it is a 'best-guess' replica built in the 1990s, since no one is entirely sure what the original looked like. It sits a few hundred yards from the site of the original theater. The Globe Theatre website has a more detailed history of both the original and the new theater if you are interested.

The tiered crowd at the open-air Globe Theatre. We were very glad that we weren't in the standing-room only section.

The play was amusing and very well acted. Imagine my surprise when I even recognized the leading lady, who had appeared on the British television show MI-5. The theater was also interesting, particularly as our seats (or more accurately, our benches) were along the side of the stage. It made for an interesting perspective. And I was grateful I paid the £1 for a cushion.

The view of the stage from our benches.

For a more professional review, you can read what the Evening Standard had to say earlier this month.