Photo: londondrum.comI’m sitting here watching them assemble the set for Julius Caesar. The stage is very close to the crowd with three floors of balconied seats wrapped around a yard. I’ve decided to fork out for a decent seat in the middle balcony but it isn’t exactly comfy… it’s more like a plank of wood and it doesn’t have a back rest (unless you sit in the back row, but that will ruin your view). There’s a guy walking round selling red cushions for a quid – I definitely recommend buying one. Apparently that’s how they used to do it in Shakespeare’s day: touting out cushions before the show starts.
I can see another guy wandering around the yard with a big wicker basket of nuts and tubs of juice. There are a few people munching on doorstop-sized pork pies as well, holding polystyrene cups of hot coffee.
Shakespeare’s playhouse
The theatre is supposed to be a replica of the Elizabethan one that stood in Shakespeare’s day and it’s completely open to the weather – there are even a few pigeons flapping around the rafters, peering down at us from the thatched roof. Let’s hope the rain doesn’t come in because the actors don’t stop for anything – not even howling gales and downpours. We’ve already had a bit of a drizzle and the punters just tugged up their hoods and the staff carried on regardless, so that is something to be aware of if you stand in the yard: you will get wet. And you won’t get a refund!
The yard is where the cheap people stand – it’s basically just a big concrete floor surrounding the stage. In Shakespeare’s day it would have been filled with wet mud and sawdust and people’s spit and p*ss, but these days it’s all solid concrete. You’ll have to stand up for the entire show down there, shoulder to shoulder with hundreds of other punters, and if you’ve got a little kid then trust me: they won’t be able to see a thing. So get there early and elbow your way to the front otherwise they’ll just be staring at someone’s back all day.
The stage rises up to about head height and you can just about rest your arms on the front edge if you raise them above your neck. Lots of people are doing that. The staff don’t seem to mind.
Watching Shakespeare’s ‘Julius Caesar’
Okay… here we go. Lots of minstrels have just bounded out and are diddling some tunes on fiddles and flutes. There are a few doors dotted around the sides of the yard and all the musicians are parading in from those. In they come banging tasseled tambourines and it’s quite a May Day atmosphere all of a sudden. Then the cheers go up as the actors come in… straight through the packed-out yard and up onto the stage. Lots of shouting out: “Clear off you plebs!” and “Get out of the way!”
They’ve got a few stooges in the crowd cheering “Caesar! Caesar” to get everyone going and we’re all straining to see him waving and blowing kisses as he parades in through the punters. The yard has become part of the scenery and the crowd are part of the cast! Fanfares and trumpets and drums are playing up on the stage, and it makes me wonder why they don’t build all theatres like this – it’s brilliant!
The play is well under way now, and the actors are shouting out their lines from the stage. They didn’t have any lights and microphones in Shakespeare’s day and they don’t use any here either, but the seats are quite close to the stage so it’s all very clear and easy to hear – but hearing it and understanding it are two entirely different things. When I was younger I went through a phase of trying to educate myself by reading a few of his plays. That didn’t last long (about two weeks). I think I managed Hamlet and Macbeth and it’s every bit as impenetrable in the theatre as I remember it on paper. Shakespeare is hard enough to understand in a book, but when you’ve got actors firing it at you in a mad-man’s chunter it’s very difficult to keep up. And it hasn’t been Hollywood-ised or dumbed down for the tourists, either – this is the real thing, straight out of the Folio and onto the stage. If your English isn’t 100% then good luck trying to understand it.
The way they are involving the crowd has led to some very funny scenes – like when they had a Roman legion fighting for their lives on stage before storming off through the yard to the back of the theatre. A couple in the crowd were a bit slow to shift and got a deafening bellow of “MOVE!” at the point of a sword. They soon moved – very funny! They also had a scene where the rioters ripped out some entrails from a senator’s stomach. Bright red blood sprayed out across the crowd before they chucked the innards at their feet: cue lots of groaning and hearty laughter from the crowd.
As soon as the play ended the whole cast did the most unexpectedly boisterous dance I have ever seen. It was like New Year’s Eve and our last night on Earth all rolled into one – very good! It was a really good show, and I certainly enjoyed it.
Best place to sit in the theatre
Now that the show is over I can give you a little piece of advice about the best place to sit. Try and sit in the mid-level gallery, where I was, but avoid the three bays closest to the stage because your view will be obscured by some supporting columns (so don’t go in blocks A, B, C, N, P or Q).
If you’re in the upper gallery then avoid the first four bays because the roof juts out across the top (so don’t go in blocks A, B, C, D, M, N, P or Q). And if you’re in the lower gallery avoid the first two bays (A, B, P and Q). If you stand in the yard then you’re free to walk around wherever you want.
If you enjoy this then try Charles Dickens Museum (walk it in 28 mins or travel from Southwark to Russell Square via tube) and Sherlock Holmes Museum (travel from Southwark to Baker Street by tube). If you enjoyed watching a play then you might like to come back for a guided tour of the theatre. Or how about a day-trip to Stratford-upon-Avon to see where he was born and buried? You might also like to go and see his monument in Poets’ Corner in Westminster Abbey, or some of his manuscripts at the British Library
