The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 8.0820.  Wednesday, 6 August 1997.

[1]     From:   Harry Hill <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
        Date:   Tuesday, 05 Aug 1997 07:45:19 +0000 (HELP)
        Subj:   Re: SHK 8.0816 Re: New Globe

[2]     From:   Eric Armstrong <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
        Date:   Tuesday, 5 Aug 1997 20:49:30 -0400 (EDT)
        Subj:   Re: Globe and not being a groundling.

[3]     From:   Terence Hawkes <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
        Date:   Wednesday, 6 Aug 1997 05:07:10 -0400
        Subj:   SHK 8.0816  Re: New Globe


[1]-----------------------------------------------------------------
From:           Harry Hill <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date:           Tuesday, 05 Aug 1997 07:45:19 +0000 (HELP)
Subject: 8.0816 Re: New Globe
Comment:        Re: SHK 8.0816 Re: New Globe

Krapp right after Cymbeline

It may have been a `brilliant' performance of Krapp an hour and a half
after playing Cymbeline, but the actual feat is rather easy, if I may
say so, since to act Krapp is a strangely relaxing process once one has
left the rehearsal weeks. There is a great deal of that gripping
motionlessness that so affects the spectator, for instance; the extreme
focus needed to play with the meanings of one's eyes and their telling
brows is akin to the concentration of meditation or prayer that leaves
one elevated and exhausted afterwards and promotes a beautifully sound
sleep once at home and the audience tossing in their newly existential
beds.

        Harry Hill

[2]-------------------------------------------------------------
From:           Eric Armstrong <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date:           Tuesday, 5 Aug 1997 20:49:30 -0400 (EDT)
Subject:        Re: Globe and not being a groundling.

I saw Henry the Fift at the new Globe and had a problem that I believe
hasn't been mentioned so far: I got a really bad sunburn. My wife and I
had (rather uncomfortable) seats in the second gallery, right in the
middle, the day that Hillary Clinton came to see the show. Not only did
we not get in until her Highness had taken her seat, keeping us from
seeing the theatre until the last moment, amidst a crush of people
struggling to get in, but she only stayed for the first act. The stage
is carefully placed so the actors don't have the sun in their eyes, but
as a result, the audience DOES. This makes it quite difficult to see the
stage. Because of fire regulations (which are stiff, the Globe being the
only thatched building in London) you are not allowed to stand in the
aisle to get into the shade and can't move down to the cool confines of
the groundlings with out a ticket.  For this reason I think that the
groundlings had the best seats in the house and they were far cheaper
too!

Grumblingly,
Eric Armstrong

[3]-------------------------------------------------------------
From:           Terence Hawkes <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date:           Wednesday, 6 Aug 1997 05:07:10 -0400
Subject: Re: New Globe
Comment:        SHK 8.0816  Re: New Globe

The 'New Globe' is wholly and delightfully an American venture and
should be applauded as such. It embodies an American view of history
(that the past can be coralled, domesticated, and thus escaped from).
This strikes me as entirely admirable, provided its audiences realize
that what's on offer is an experience as quintessential -and as
remarkable- as the Grand Canyon, Times Square or the singing of Bessie
Smith. Unfortunately, it is being marketed as something quite different.
This suggests that, whereas the inscription over the entrance to the
'original' Globe was "Totus Mundus Agit Histrionem", the one over the
entrance to its successor should read "Caveat Emptor". Either that, or
"Play It Again, Sam".

Terence Hawkes

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