I went to watch the play in Pop up Globe theatre last week. The play is William Shakespeare’s comedy As You Like It. I found there are a few immersive elements. Firstly, the construction of the globe is one.
Overlook, the building looks like a ball, thus it is called globe. It is in the half open, the round of the globe has roofs but the middle of the globe doesn’t. This feature gives more connection to the nature, audience can see the moon and stars in the night show. Although the indoor hall might gather better sound from stage, the globe is small that audiences is very close to the stage, all of them can hear the sound clearly. The inside the globe is not big, the stage occupies nearly half. The seats are limited, so that audiences can get closer to the stage and actors. There are a certain space for standing audience. The actors will go through those audience during the play and make interaction with them quite often. All the actors speak without mic, but the construction material of the globe is woof, which might be using special stereo system, actors’ voices can be heard clearly as well as the musical instruments.
What’s more, the performance of actors is attractive. All the actors are male, the female roles are also played by male. This is because in the period of Shakespeare’s time, female has low status in society, they are treated badly. There were no actress at that time; therefore, this troupe follows this origins. At the end of the play, the actor who performing the female main role, Rosalind, takes off his dress and wig to present his true self, and then he starts to speak for the female, grabs huge claps.
