Walking along the bank of Thames, we stumbled upon the reconstructed Globe Theatre where the world’s largest exhibition devoted to Shakespeare exists in London today.

The Globe Theatre is a faithful reconstruction of the open-air playhouse designed in 1599 where Shakespeare worked and for which he wrote many of his greatest plays. Ten years old this year, the Globe brings Shakespeare’s world to life and is one of the most exciting ways to rediscover Shakespeare and his genius.

 Excited, we walked in to check out what was playing that evening and were thrilled to know that through the month of October, Othello, The Merchant of Venice and Love’s Labour’s Lost, were being performed. None of us, who have been weaned on the Senior Cambridge system of education, have ever forgotten Shakespeare, having studied everything from, The Merchant of Venice to Macbeth, through our final years. But, the words seemed so high brow then, when Shakespeare actually wrote for the masses.

  In 1599, Bankside, where the Globe has been built today, was the entertainment centre of London, packed with gambling dens, brothels, bear-baiting pits and theatres. Ordinary people flocked to see Shakespeare’s plays. They laughed, cried, shouted abuse at the actors and ate and drank during the performances.
The Globe today, rediscovers the dynamic relationship between the audience and actors, though of course, you cannot eat and drink during the play. There are seats all around in a wooden gallery, but the most fun thing to do is to stand informally in an open yard around the stage and shout, whistle and clap like audiences would have done hundreds of years ago.

Actors run through the audience and every aspect of Shakespeare’s work is brought imaginatively to life. The building is open to the elements and as the ticket says, “We continue performances through every kind of weather.”

We paid five pounds to stand in the open yard around the stage. You are ensured of an exciting time, especially if you go early enough to rush in and stand against the boards of the stage. We bought tickets for Merchant of Venice which was directed by Rebecca Gatward with costume design by Liz Cooke.

Merchant of Venice, as we all know, was set in the New York of the renaissance world — Venice — a city where East met West and where wealth and romance concealed commercialism and prejudice. This human drama of love, prejudice and hope was played out unimpeded and swept us along with the drama of the Jew demanding his pound of flesh, closest to the heart.

The whole arena had people from all over the world — Germans, Spanish, Italians, French, Americans — speaking in different tongues to one another and yet, when the play began, English was the great universal binder of us all.

As we know, Shakespeare dramatises the competing claims of tolerance and intolerance, religion and civil society, justice and mercy, in some of his most electrifying scenes. In the character of Shylock, he created one of the most unforgettable villains in all theatre. The whole play was staged in renaissance costumes and music and of course the scene where the Jew sharpens his knife to cut off his ‘pound of flesh’, was the most dramatic of all.
You don’t have to be a fan of Shakespeare to enjoy his plays. However, here at the London Globe, standing along with the ‘poor’ in the five-pound yard The Merchant of Venice came to life and every word dripped with meaning, and we left hating and feeling sorry for Shylock, all at once.

It is a unique arena, a miniature renaissance, a celebration of life. If in London, wander along the Thames to Shakespeare’s Globe and take in a performance. Like they say, no one can do it better than the Brits.