Throughout our time in England, we visited multiple cities and saw many different places. We all know how much I love York… if you were unaware of this, please read my previous post! However, London came as a close second. I was really worried that I would feel like I was in New York City—just with slightly cleaner streets and big, red busses. While it still felt like New York City, London had its own quirks that made it just as charming.
My favorite part about London, however, was the infamous Globe Theatre. This was something that was high up on my bucket list of things to see before I die, and I feel very fortunate to have been able to not only visit this charming theatre, but to see a Shakespeare play there as well. As soon as we walked in, we were greeted by the lovely staff, and equally as lovely (and clever) hand sanitizer station.
We had a little bit of time to kill before our show, Much Ado About Nothing, started, so we decided to hit the gift shop beforehand. Roughly £230 later, I left the gift shop with two tote bags, a t-shirt, a mug, two posters, a collection of the entire works of Shakespeare, all rolled into one large book with golden edges, and of course, a pair of Macbeth socks.
With our bags full of purchases that we certainly did not need, we headed onto our tour of The Globe. Upon entering the theatre for the first time, my breath was taken away immediately. On a rare occurrence for London, the brightly shining sun casted a warm glow over the entire theatre. I looked at Grace with tears in my eyes, wanting to pinch myself at how beautiful and iconic the scenery was in front of me.
The stage was filled with actors, dressed in their normal clothes, doing warm-ups and preparing themselves for the show in which we were about to see. I half-listened to our tour guide (sorry, Norma), as I was simply so enthralled watching them and my surroundings.
After our tour, we grabbed our seat cushions and headed up to our seats. As we waited for the show to start, we took some pictures and geeked out (as English majors do) over the fact that we were actually here. Throughout the show, we laughed, we cried, and very clearly enjoyed ourselves.
Out of all of the things we did in London, The Globe was by far my favorite. As we have talked a lot about in this class, it is often easy to dismiss Shakespeare as someone whose work is too difficult to understand, and perhaps slightly pretentious. However, as someone who used to struggle with Shakespeare and now loves him, I can guarantee that anyone who sees any play of his as a live performance is guaranteed to be impressed. The memories I made at The Globe are ones that I will carry with me forever, especially into my future classroom.
Emma Stack