Globe Theatre

Globe Theatre, London.

1. On the south side of Maiden Lane, Bankside, in Southwark, the theatre most intimately associated with Shakespeare, who was one of the Housekeepers, or owners of a share in it. It was built in 1599 by Cuthbert Burbage of materials taken from the Theatre, built by his father, and was the largest and best known of the Elizabethan playhouses. It housed the company known as the Chamberlain's Men, led by Richard Burbage. Being largely open to the elements, it was used only during the summer months, the company transferring after 1613 to the Blackfriars Theatre for the winter. All that is known of its interior is that it had a thatched roof over the upper gallery and that some of its dimensions were the same as those of the Fortune. In 1613, during or shortly after a performance of Henry VIII, it caught fire and was burned down. Rebuilt in substantially the same style, but with a tiled roof in place of the thatch in which the fire was believed to have originated, it reopened in 1614 and remained in constant use until all the London theatres were closed in 1642. When the Burbages' lease ran out in 1644 the building was demolished. A reconstruction close to the original site brought about by the initiative of Sam Wanamaker is scheduled to open in 1992. (See also TOKYO GLOBE.)

2. A four-tiered auditorium holding about 1,800 which stood in Newcastle Street at the east end of the Strand near the Opera Comique, the two theatres being known as the Rickety Twins. It opened in 1868 and had a success in 1876 with Jo, a play based on Dickens's Bleak House. In 1884 Hawtrey's The Private Secretary, with Penley in the lead, achieved immense popularity, becoming one of the classic stage farces of all time. In 1893 Penley returned to the Globe, which had in the meantime housed Mansfield in 1889 and Frank Benson's company in 1890, with another classic farce, Brandon Thomas's Charley's Aunt, which ran for four years. In 1898 John Hare became manager, his most interesting production being Pinero's The Gay Lord Quex (1899), with Irene Vanbrugh. The last production, in 1902, was a revival of Kester's Sweet Nell of Old Drury, with Fred Terry and Julia Neilson, after which the theatre, long considered a fire hazard, was demolished as part of the Strand widening scheme.

3. In Shaftesbury Avenue, built for Seymour Hicks, whose name it first bore, having a three-tier auditorium, a proscenium width of 30 ft., and stage depth of 36 ft. It opened under the management of Charles Frohman in 1906 and, renamed in 1909, remained Frohman's London headquarters until his death in 1915. Later successes included Lonsdale's Aren't We All?, Maugham's Our Betters (both 1923), and Coward's Fallen Angels (1925). The appearance in 1930 of Moissi in Hamlet was followed by the Pitoëffs in Shaw's Saint Joan, Fagan's The Improper Duchess (1931) with Yvonne Arnaud, and St John Ervine's Robert's Wife (1937). Rattigan's While the Sun Shines (1943) was a wartime hit and later came Fry's The Lady's Not for Burning (1949) with John Gielgud; Anouilh's Ring Round the Moon (1950) in which Scofield scored his first West End success; Graham Greene's The Complaisant Lover (1959); and Bolt's A Man for All Seasons (1960), with Scofield as Sir Thomas More. In 1966 Terence Frisby's There's a Girl in my Soup began a long run. The theatre also staged the work of Peter Nichols (Chez nous, 1974, and Born in the Gardens, 1980); Michael Frayn (Donkeys' Years, 1976); and Alan Ayckbourn (The Norman Conquests, 1974, Ten Times Table, 1978, and Joking Apart, 1979). Glenda Jackson and Joan Plowright starred there in García Lorca's The House of Bernarda Alba, and Maggie Smith in Peter Shaffer's Lettice and Lovage (both 1987).