Globe Education Online

This is Geoffrey's final blog post. This week he discusses the differences between the two plays he has performed in this season, and how he has adapted to performing on the Globe stage.

Hamlet and The Antipodes

Now that the season is coming to an end I realise how much more comfortable I am with the Globe theatre space. When I first stepped onto the stage for Hamlet, I found it very daunting. Slowly I have begun to wear it more like an overcoat. Now that we are performing The Antipodes I feel very comfortable with the space. This in turn makes performing more fun. Having said this I am still always learning. I would like to make my performance a little subtler, especially in The Antipodes. I am still working on this.

The Antipodes is a comedy by Richard Brome. I play Hughball who is a doctor of Physic. The audiences love it and find it very funny. I am very relieved about this because I wasn’t sure how funny they were going to find the play. I have a very long scene in the play where I explain to Peregrine about The Antipodes. I have always felt that this scene is not at all funny, partly because it goes on for so long. It is here that I would particularly like to be subtler. However, the audiences laugh all the way through and don’t seem to find it boring.

Hughball and Horatio are very different characters who have very different roles in their respective plays. Horatio responds to what happens in Hamlet in order to try and protect the people around him. Hughball, however, is responsible for driving The Antipodes. He’s a character who has to establish his authority early on in the play and take control. He therefore requires a more instant definition of character compared to Horatio whose character can develop during the play. Although, of course, Horatio does have to begin Hamlet as well, but in Hamlet, the ghost overwhelms the early scenes. Having had to define my character so distinctly in The Antipodes, I began to wonder if Horatio should be more defined. I began to think that perhaps he should be less passive. I came to the conclusion that this wasn’t needed. Horatio is passive. This point just illustrates how different the two parts are.

Because the rehearsal process was so long and intense for Hamlet, I am finding that at this stage of the season I am making very few discoveries. Horatio hasn’t really changed at all. It is me who has changed. I have become more comfortable with him and the Globe stage at every performance. Hamlet does grow as a show. It seems to become more and more ‘real’ to me. I think that this is due to working in repertoire. When you are able to have a break from a show and then go back to it you always come back with added freshness.

These comments are the actor’s thoughts and ideas about the part as s/he goes through the rehearsal and performance process – they are simply his/her own interpretations and frequently change as the rehearsal process progresses.

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