Year 11 Girls – Globe Theatre Tour

A group of Year 11 girls attended a tour of the Globe Theatre to develop their study of Macbeth. The girls learned that plays were performed in the afternoon with natural light and that there wasn’t any scenery. This meant that the words of the play often had to convey the context – the time of day, the location etc. They got to understand where the witches would have come from (down below the stage) as opposed to the ghost of Banquo which would have come from the heavens – with the stage ceiling painted accordingly. The actor who ran the tour and workshop spoke about the difference between a modern theatre where lights go down and Elizabethan/Stuart theatre where the actors can see and use their audience as part of the play whether as the army being sent to battle or as a trusted friend with the delivery of a soliloquy.

The girls asked some interesting questions about the theatre itself in terms of G-dliness – one noticed that Roman G-ds are painted around the top of the stage which wasn’t very Christian. They also explored the contradiction of witches and Christianity.

The workshop explored the concept of power and interpersonal relationships of characters. They also looked at meaning and the interpretation of an excerpt from Act 1 Scene 7. It was a great way for them to explore the text and learn some of the subtleties of the structure and interpretation as well as giving the girls confidence to interpreting the meaning of a text themselves.

The girls were all very engaged and enjoyed the experience. It certainly helped to bring the play to life!

Thank you to Mrs Bolsom for organising the event, and to Mrs Laurence and Mrs Brodie for accompanying the girls.