Year 7 trip to The Globe
July 8th, 2009
At the end of the Summer Term, a group of Year 7 girls had a fantastic evening out in Southwark visiting The Globe to watch Shakespeare’s Globe on Tour’s performance of A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
Most of the girls had never been to the Globe before but they had just finished reading Susan Cooper’s “King of Shadows” and so were looking forward to experiencing the delights of being a “penny stinkard” and standing for the best part of four hours!
As it turned out, the play was so captivating that the time literally flew by and there was not even a murmur of complaint about aching legs.
The talented cast threw themselves into their roles with amazing gusto and from the very first line the audience was completely involved in the extraordinary to-ing and fro-ing between the various lovers at Theseus’ Court, intrigued by the constant war of words between Oberon and Titania and thoroughly entranced by the hilarious “Mechanicals”. The fact that the cast of only eight actors managed to step into two or even three roles seemingly seamlessly, as well as play a number of instruments and sing and dance added to everyone’s appreciation and enjoyment.
It will be a long time before the girls forget the actor who played Flute (who incidentally was also Demetrius and Mustardseed), improbably playing “Thisbe” to Bottom’s “Pyramus”, trying “her” hardest to kill “herself” with little or no effect. It was totally hilarious and all the girls were in fits of laughter, made all the more irresistible because the acting was happening just a few inches away from their faces!
One of the girls commented, “I so want to go back and see another play. It was amaaaaazing! My favourite bit was when Puck was “invisible” and doing funny things to all the other characters. Seeing it live really helped me to understand the whole play so much more”.
It turns out that this new Shakespeare fan apparently then dragged her mother back to the Globe during the summer holidays to see both “Troilus and Cressida” and “As You Like It”!
Mrs J Bailey
Year 6 Teacher
