Old spaces and new globes

摘要

When the reconstructed Globe The-atre opened on the south bank of the River Thames in 1996, some dismissed the project as yet another piece of heritage hocus-pocus, a Disneyland version of Merrie England, like re-enacting medieval jousts on the lawns of crumbling castles. Yet nine years on, as Mark Rylance, its founding actor/manager, begins his farewell season, the Globe, a faithful recreation of the 1599 original, has become one of London's liveliest cultural resources. Not only has it provided fresh insights into Shakespeare's work and that of his contemporaries, but it has sparked new interest around the world in all aspects of i6th- and 17th-century theatres: their architecture, their staging techniques, their audiences and the role they played in a largely illiterate urban society.