To stream or not to stream

Shakespeare's Globe has made his play's available for free during the lockdown. Hamlet is now streaming on YouTube

Shakespeare's Globe is a reconstruction of the original theatre of the same name that showcased most of the Bard's plays in his heyday.

Shakespeare’s Globe is a reconstruction of the original theatre of the same name that showcased most of the Bard’s plays in his heyday.

The Globe’s 2018 production of Hamlet is now streaming on YouTube. It features Michelle Terry, the Artistic Director of theatre, in the lead role

William Shakespeare is fabled to have written three plays — King Lear, Macbeth and Antony and Cleopatra — during the great plague of London. His industrious efforts during a period of quarantine, not unlike the one we’re living in now, was fueled by the closure of theatres around the city of London.

Lucky for us, modern comforts of the internet give us the chance to be occupied even without physical spaces. While lovers of cinema have countless OTT platforms, theatre loyalists are left with a gap.

To fill this space, Shakespeare’s Globe, a contemporary construction of the playwright’s most famous theatre, is streaming their plays on YouTube.

The entire library of 130 plays has been available on their streaming platform Globe Player in a Video on Demand format.

They began with Hamlet, which premiered on April 6. The plays are available on their channel ‘Shakespeare’s Globe’ for a period of two weeks from the premier.

The line up for the plays extends till June and consists of Romeo and Juliet, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Two Noble Kinsmen, The Winter’s Tale and The Merry Wives of Windsor.

Also available on their website are PDFs of introductory notes, the programme and the visual story as well as accompanying podcasts.

The plays at the theatre are experimental and do not use mic or spotlights to stay true to the writer’s times. They take you into the space as the focus is not solely on the stage but also the atmosphere inside the Globe, which has been constructed as closely as possible to its 16th-century form.

About the Globe Theatre

The theatre was originally built in 1599. A dispute between The Lord Chamberlain’s Men, the troupe of actors that Shakespeare wrote for, and the landlord of their theatre is where the origin story of the Globe begins. Their lease was up and their landlord wanted to tear the theatre down.

The Burbage brothers, who owned the troupe, discovered a provision in the lease that allowed them to dismantle the building themselves. When the landlord was away, they gathered their men and chief carpenter and stripped the building bare and moved the materials to the site of the future Globe.

The theatre was destroyed in a fire in 1613, during a performance of Henry VIII, where a cannon shot burned down the thatched roof. It was rebuilt in 1614 and staged productions until 1642 when the puritans shut it down.

The modern iteration was constructed in 1997, under the watch of actor and director Sam Wanamaker as a passion project. It was built as closely as it could be to the original.

Schedule

Hamlet - April 6 to April 19

Romeo and Juliet - April 20 to May 3

A Midsummer Night’s Dream - May 4 to May 17

The Two Noble Kinsmen - May 18 to May 31

The Winter’s Tale - June 1 to June 14

The Merry Wives of Windsor - June 15 to June 29