Globe Education Online

Changing the text was genius. This play was superb, as usual.

I couldn’t agree more with your previous contributors on this noticeboard about the disappointment of the Globes usual excesses being present when I visited ‘Troilus’ during the summer. Like the contributor below, I was bewildered by Pandarus final speech, being unable to understand either what was being said or its relevance. Not for the first time after trip to the Globe, I found myself having to read the script when I got home to find out what Shakespeare had written rather than what the Globe had chosen to present me with.
In response to the other postings here, it is my understanding that the Globe was built to enable us to see Shakespeares work (and that of his contemporaries) in a setting as near as we can to its original staging. If not this, then why bother recreating the building? Surely Sams vision was to create a place where the text can be liberated and Shakespeares true voice be clearly heard, not have it obscured by distracting gimmicks? This being so, why did I see acrobatic displays getting in the way of a production of ‘Pericles’? What was the point of people on trapezes in ‘Timon’? It seems as if the directors are terrified of trusting the texts to tell the stories and feel they have to constantly invent gimmicks to help us understand. As one of the contributors on this post so rightly says, how dare they think that Shakespeares words - if performed audibly and with skill (often not the case at my previous visits to the Globe) - are so feeble that they need such assistance? A strange attitude for an establishment who’s entire raison d’etre is to trumpet the glories of the Bard as our finest playwright! Shakespeares work was written in such a way that it inspires the imagination to create whatever we do not directly see on the stage. His own words in Henry V prologue should be the charter by which your directors work. As such, it is the very essence of what a theatrical experience should be - actors on a stage speaking words communicating with an audiences imagination. Of course there is a place for experimenting with the plays but, as one of the posts here suggests, surely that place is a modern theatre. The Globe is there to allow us to see Shakespeare in its purest form in the historical setting for which it was written. So, for heavens sake, Globe, get out of his way!

A question for anyone who knows: what happened to Pandarus's final speech? The director had Pandarus quoting John the Baptist from the Gospels in an out of control rant most of which I couldn't make out. Pandarus's last words to the audience are very important to Shakespeare's text and I was mystified to see them suppressed in favor of something that didn't make any sense to me (I'm open to the possibility that I was missing something). Does anyone know where the new portion came from? Was it the director's invention? I really enjoyed the production right up till the altered ending.

Absolutely loved Troilus and Cressida yesterday (having booked without knowing that the fabulous Matthew Kelly was playing Pandarus). I agree with the above comment only insofar as once or twice the young leads did over-shriek, but really this was only once or twice. The rest of the performance was a sublime, arresting experience, head-and-shoulders above the other Greek(ish) plays I've seen this year (Oedipus, Phedre, Dido Queen of Carthage, even Helen) - fresh, wonderful, as if Mr S had written it just yesterday, and I welcome directors 'getting in the way of the text' - plays are living, breathing organisms - not fossils. Fantastic, could have watched it all over again. An experience of theatre as it is meant to be. Alive.

A late brooding blackbird feeds her young in the eaves. And below, the Trojan war is played out on stage in Matthew Dunster's inventive production at Shakespeare's Globe.
The place is packed, punters attracted perhaps by Matthew Kelly's Pandarua. It is an arresting performance, holding the stage while preening, plotting, pleading and leading a rousing “Love, love, nothing but love!”
His niece Cressida is a watchable, elfin Laura Pyper, with Paul Stocker, perm and pecs, as her Troilus.
Elsewhere in a large, energetic and sometimes confusing cast of characters there was much muscle, and a little Greek love. The other clown was Paul Hunter's misshapen Thersites.
The Globe stage was clad in sunbaked clay colours, with a strange ramo around the front, and at the death of Hector, black banners tumble down from the roof.
At the end, Pandarus' mad recapitulation is drowned out by drums, and rhythmic percussion from the whole company replaces the traditional jig.

It really will not do - again! When will you trust the TEXT?! Actors who demonstrate, generalise, and sets which directly contradict Sam W's dream of an open space. If you want naturalism, hire a pros-arch theatre and put up your sets to give your actors space to demonstrate their naturalistic ideas - but not at the Globe. The Globe is a blank space - the text tells you all that you need to know - the characters are, as Tyrone Guthrie said, Gods in human form. So ban your shrieking young actors, hire a decent Casting Director - but most of all - hire Directors who love and understand Shakespeare. Directors who have the modesty to get out of the way of the text - and let Shakespeare speak. WITHOUT ANY HELP! All we need to know is : "On your imaginary forces work" followed by Theseus' : "I will hear that play". You don't need to demonstrate it all for us - TRUST THE TEXT! And for goodness sake find experienced actors who can do that for you. Thank you - rant over!