But first. I made us book it out of class so we could get there ASAP and hopefully obtain some groundling seats. The short of it (imagine, me, concise): we did. I was thrilled. I had sent Becka to get sandwiches while I waited in line and I went tearing into Eat (that's the name of the restaurant, it's delicious) waving our tickets and smiling like a fool.
So we waited in the next line, the groundling line, and were the fifth people there, which meant one thing: we would be getting great seats. Or, standing spaces. That's what the groundlings do, you stand in this giant pit and get right up next to the stage, literally resting your elbows on it if you want (I wanted). So after waiting in line about an hour and a half we were finally loosed into the theatre and Becka and I went right up to the front, slightly stage left, right in front of the little pool that Benedick would ultimately wash his feet in. No, really, it was great.
Oh, Claudio. In mine eye he is the sweetest man that ever I looked on. I legitimately worried I may faint when he entered. Becka told me I'd better not dare, since then she'd have to leave and all our hard work would be for nothing. Anyone, it was all I could do to look at anything else onstage, but I managed, and was I glad I did because if that wasn't one of the best damn shows I've ever seen. I don't know if it was my heightened level of excitement, our close proximity to the stage, the audience involvement (they were super into it), the fact that it wasn't 1000 degrees as it was the first time I saw it, or that the actors just got a weeklong vacation. Whatever it was, it was spectacular.
It was an entirely different experience than any of my other Globe shows. There's nothing like being a groundling. I think I made eye contact with almost every actor onstage at one point or another (yes, even HIM. But it was painfully short). It's almost a little disconcerting, really. I felt vulnerable, which is ridiculous because they're the ones acting. But when they can see you just as well as you see them, it's definitely a different dynamic. It's also what makes the Globe so wonderful, it is a totally different theatre experience. It's also the best seat in the house, by far (despite it not actually being a seat). You can see every little expression on the actors' faces. You can notice things that you can't from farther away. My favorite: there's a scene where Benedick is eavesdropping on Claudio and Don Pedro's conversation about how Beatrice loves him. He puts on a gardening hat and grabs a hoe, pretending like he's gardening so he can get closer to their conversation. Just then his servant shows up, trying to hand him a book that he requested earlier in the scene before the others show up. He not-so-subtly turns, waves angrily at her, and mouthes f**k off... twice. It was hysterical, largely because it was so shocking, and I had no idea from the Upper Circle. I also managed to grab a souvenir, a piece of gold that Don John throws at Hero after Claudio rejects her and throws her around at the wedding (if you haven't read/seen the play and have no idea what I'm talking about, just don't worry about it).
Anyway, it was all wonderful. I could go into more detail but for those of you who are not fiendishly obsessed with Shakespeare (and I suspect that is all of you), I won't. We have a lot of schoolwork over these next few days, what with class ending on Thursday. We gave our group presentation on Hamlet today. We did a mock trial on whether Hamlet is crazy or not. It was good fun and on the class vote we won for the best presentation. Dobby gave us little Shakespeare's Globe pins. You know I'll treasure mine. Just like I'll treasure... all of this.
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