A couple of weeks ago, strolling along the South Bank, I was
just passing The Globe Theatre, one of my favourite London spots....
...OK, I admit it – I wasn’t passing the Theatre: I was
heading for the door as I usually do, to soak up the ambience and just possibly
part with a bit of cash in the bookshop...
..when I saw a small sandwich board informing me that The
Rose Theatre had an Open Day, with Free Admission.
The Rose Theatre?
I mean – THE Rose Theatre??
As in the theatre where two Shakespeare plays premiered?
Where Will himself trod the boards?? Along with Kit Marlowe et al???
Surely not. That Rose Theatre disappeared 400 or so years
ago, along with the Bear Pits and the Stews – or brothels – that littered
Southwark in the late sixteenth century.
Didn’t it?
Intrigued, I followed the sign round the corner into Park
Street and sure enough, there was an open door leading to a theatre, and on the
wall next to it was a blue plaque confirming that this is the site of the original
Elizabethan theatre.
I walked into a small foyer area and was welcomed and
shered straight through to a gallery space where 50 or so chairs were set out
round a central performance area, and a film was playing to a couple of seated
visitors.
I joined them for the end of the film which proved to be a
potted history of the Rose theatre narrated by Sir Ian McKellan, and as it
finished the lights went up and I was suddenly aware of a large empty space
below the gallery, lit only by red LED lights:
And yes, as you can see, most of it is under water...
By the time I had listened to a lovely volunteer called
Suzie enthuse about the project I was hooked.
I learned that not only was I sitting directly above the
still existing foundations of the actual Rose Theatre where Shakespeare
actually performed, which have managed to cheat time and the property
developers for over 400 years (to say nothing of the Luftwaffe) but that
dedicated people are raising money to excavate the site – some of it was
explored in 1989 but there is lots more to find out about – and that the final
intention is to open the site to the public as a preserved space with galleries
used as educational and display spaces along with somehow continuing to use the
Rose for the purpose it was originally built for so long ago.
Eventually I, along with many other Shakespeare admirers I’m
sure, hope to stand on the very spot where the Bard of Avon once acted and no
doubt directed. I will also be able attend a performance of one of his plays in
the same theatre in which it was performed four centuries ago.
In fact, I have already achieved the second, as you will see
if you read the review below!
In the meantime, we have some money to find!
So I will be taking part in a Readathon on 31 May, at the Rose,
in which we aim to read through 12 of Shakespeare’s plays in a day – 12 hours
in fact. If you would like to sponsor me, please email msullivan58@hotmail.co.uk
If you would like to come along, either as a reader or a
member of the audience, please do visit the Rose Theatre’s webpage for the
event here: http://www.rosetheatre.org.uk/events/event/readathon-at-the-rose/
And if you would like to know more about the Theatre, their
website is here: http://www.rosetheatre.org.uk/
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