When we left off, I teased that we’d had an interesting visit to St. Paul’s Cathedral.  St. Paul’s is a gorgeous cathedral, designed by the great Christopher Wren (who did many iconic London buildings).  When we visited in 2008, we went inside the cathedral and were awestruck by the magnificent gold ceilings.  This time, there was a ceremony going on involving a bunch of little boys and their families (it had the air of a graduation of some sort, but there were no caps and gowns, so I’m at a loss) and we didn’t get inside – which was okay, as we simply wanted to walk around and admire the dome.  But what made the visit interesting was that St. Paul’s was the site of the Occupy London encampment.  Somehow, I’ve been able to make it through the entire Occupy movement without crossing paths with Occupy DC; I had to journey across an ocean to come face to face with any Occupiers.  (Please note: I don’t talk politics on here, so I won’t take a position one way or the other on Occupy.  I have an opinion, but it’s not blog material.)  We were literally stepping in between sleeping bags and ducking through groups of Occupy protesters as we made our way around the cathedral.  I actually thought it was pretty cool to be treading through what I think is a movement destined for the history books.

Anywho.  That same day we crossed the Thames and visited Shakespeare’s Globe on the South Bank.

I was totally geeked out over getting a backstage tour of the Globe.  Now, okay, I realize this isn’t the actual Globe, where Shakespeare performed and staged his plays.  (The original Globe Theatre burned down in 1613; it was later rebuilt, put on a few more years of shows, and closed permanently in 1642.)  Shakespeare’s Globe is a modern reconstruction, which opened in 1997 not far from the original Globe site and was built using as many authentic materials and techniques as practicable.  In its heydey, the Globe was just one of several theatres on the South Bank of the Thames, which acquired quite the reputation.  The Puritans were constantly agitating for shutting down the theatre district – it was raucous and noisy and the theatre-goers got up to all kinds of drunken shenanigans.  That was how Shakespeare and his pals rolled!  I would have loved to see that fun-loving crew in action.

The stage!!!  So while Shakespeare’s Globe isn’t “the real thing,” it was still darn exciting for this theatre nerd.  I own The Complete Works of Shakespeare; I’ve read many of his plays and seen a few – including some extremely funky interpretations, which I think are the best – and I’m giddy with dorky glee over anything associated with the Bard.  So to get a behind-the-scenes tour of a theatre where Shakespeare’s plays are performed regularly in London was very, very cool for me.  In fact, it was the off-season for tourists, which meant that hubby and I got our own awesome private tour of the theatre (but was also a bad thing, because it meant there were no shows being performed).  One of these days, I’m going to get to a Shakespeare production at the Globe.  I don’t even care which play – I love them all, except Titus, yuck.

We sat in one of the boxes while our guide explained fun facts about the history of the original Globe and the construction of the new theatre.  And then two enormous, loud groups of middle-schoolers came in, and we fled.

The Globe also included an interesting backstage museum that was devoted more to showcasing costumes and props from productions in the new theatre than any historical artifacts – but that was okay with me.  I love checking out actual production-worn costumes and used props.  Like I said, nerd alert.  (As much as I love theatre, I like to be on the periphery.  That’s why I played in the pit orchestra instead of acting in my high school musicals – every year except senior year, when I was sick of dressing in all black and being tethered to my violin for every school show.   So I requested, and received, a very tiny, non-speaking part in the dance chorus in Brigadoon.  But yeah, meandering around backstage and checking out props is more my speed than starring in the show, thankyouverymuch.)

See?  Costumes!  Fun stuff, right?  Hubby would have looked cute in Hamlet’s father’s suit of armor.  (He probably disagrees, but my blog, my opinions.)  We had so much fun touring the Globe and basking in the backstage glory of the museum.  My only regret is that we didn’t get to see a performance.  Next time, I’m definitely going to try to get there during the theatre season and see a play.  (I’ll take any Shakespeare, but I’d particularly hope for The Taming of the Shrew, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Macbeth or one of the Henries.)

Next Friday will wrap up Messy and Hub’s Great England Adventure 2011, although I’ll have another post or two to follow, inspired by the trip (like a special post on the experience of having afternoon tea in England).  So be sure to come by as I put my food photographer hat on next week…