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Sam Wanamaker Playhouse
Press Pack
January 2014
The Sam Wanamaker Playhouse
Press Notes January 2014
Contents
Content
Press release
Biographies for key members of the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse team
The development of the Shakespeare’s Globe complex and the Sam
Wanamaker Playhouse: a historical narrative
Syndicated interviews with:
Dominic Dromgoole
Dr Farah Karim-Cooper
Jon Greenfield
Information on the four main productions in the inaugural season of work in the
Sam Wanamaker Playhouse
Press contacts and images
Page(s)
3-4
5-8
9
10 - 12
13 – 14
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NB: All materials in this Press Pack are free for use by the media in connection with
coverage of the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse
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The Sam Wanamaker Playhouse opens with new production of The Duchess of
Malfi, directed by Dominic Dromgoole
Embargoed until 2.30pm, Tuesday 14 January 2014
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The Sam Wanamaker Playhouse at Shakespeare’s Globe opens with a new production of The
Duchess of Malfi
The Playhouse has been completed on schedule and within budget
First production in unique new space is directed by Dominic Dromgoole and stars Gemma Arterton
New imagery is released ahead of press night for The Duchess of Malfi
New photography of the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, the indoor theatre at Shakespeare’s Globe, is
released today, ahead of the official opening of the inaugural production in the new space, The
Duchess of Malfi, tomorrow (15 January). Running until 16 February 2014, the production is directed by
Dominic Dromgoole, Artistic Director of Shakespeare’s Globe, and stars Gemma Arterton in the title
role. The new Playhouse is named after the organisation’s founder, pioneering American actor and
director Sam Wanamaker.
The Sam Wanamaker Playhouse affords Shakespeare’s Globe new opportunities to present plays
throughout the year, to expand the repertoire of work it presents, to investigate indoor theatre practice
and to stage Jacobean plays in their intended atmosphere. It has a capacity of 340 people, with two
tiers of galleried seating and a pit seating area. The theatre is predominantly lit by pure beeswax
candles. The building has been designed using painstaking research into the materials, methods and
decorative aesthetics of Jacobean architecture and interiors. It is an archetype, rather than a replica of
a specific Jacobean indoor theatre.
Sam Wanamaker’s vision for Shakespeare’s Globe extended beyond the Globe theatre itself. As well as
a purpose-built education centre, he always intended there to be a second indoor theatre space, the
shell of which was incorporated into the blueprint of the Globe complex. When Shakespeare’s Globe
finally opened in 1997, the result of 27 years of planning and 4 years of construction, what was then
known as the ‘Indoor Jacobean Theatre’ was left as a shell, divided and partitioned into rooms for
education workshops and rehearsals.
Sixteen years after the outdoor theatre opened, the Globe is thrilled to have finally realised this indoor
performance space, based on plans developed through exhaustive research, led by Dr Farah KarimCooper, Chair of the Architecture Research Group for the Playhouse and Head of Higher Education and
Research at the Globe. Other members of the team assembled to bring the founder’s plans to fruition
include: Jon Greenfield, working as Reconstruction Architect; Allies & Morrison, the lead architects for
the new theatre; Peter McCurdy, the celebrated builder and Master Craftsman; Professor Martin White,
the leading authority on early theatre lighting; Virtus, the main contractor who carried out the building
work; Gardiner & Theobald, the property and construction consultancy who provided project
management, CDM coordination and contract administration services. The Globe is thrilled to open the
new performance space within the time frame planned, and within budget.
The Duchess of Malfi is the first production in an eclectic season of early modern drama, opera and
exclusive one-off performances and concerts in the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse. Other forthcoming
events include: The Knight of the Burning Pestle, Cavalli’s L’Ormindo (a groundbreaking collaboration
between the Globe and the Royal Opera) and The Malcontent, the premiere performance from the
Globe Young Players, a group of talented 12-to-16-year-olds specially selected from over 950
applications.
The Sam Wanamaker Playhouse could not have been completed without the generosity of our
community of supporters both in the UK and overseas. Shakespeare’s Globe receives no regular public
subsidy, but has been fortunate enough to receive donations both large and small from local schools,
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the general public, audience members and patrons of the Globe. These individuals were incentivised to
contribute through a matched giving scheme, whereby an anonymous donor pledged £1.5million to be
matched by individual supporters, effectively doubling the value of people’s gifts.
Other significant donors to the campaign include Sara Miller McCune, Garfield Weston Foundation, The
Dr Mortimer and Theresa Sackler Foundation, The Foyle Foundation and The Linbury Trust.
For further information on the opening of the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, please contact Charlotte
Bayley at The Corner Shop PR on 020 7831 7657 [email protected]
For further information on Shakespeare’s Globe and the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse season of work,
please contact Emma Draper or Julia Hallawell at Shakespeare’s Globe on +44 207 902 1492/1491 or
email [email protected] / [email protected]
-ENDSNOTES TO EDITORS
Shakespeare’s Globe
From modest beginnings, Shakespeare’s Globe has become one of the most popular visitor
destinations in the UK, at the heart of the regeneration of London’s Bankside. Shakespeare’s Globe is a
charity and continues to operate without annual government funding.
Under the leadership of Artistic Director Dominic Dromgoole, the Globe Theatre season plays in
repertory from April to October annually, and has gained an international reputation for performance
excellence, welcoming over one million visitors annually. The Sam Wanamaker Playhouse season will
play October to April, allowing Shakespeare’s Globe to present plays all year round.
Public booking for the 2014 Globe theatre season opens on 7 February 2014. For Priority Booking from
14 January 2014, audiences can join the Friends & Patrons of Shakespeare’s Globe.
Globe Education, directed by Patrick Spottiswoode, is one of the largest arts education departments in
the country, and each year, more than 100,000 people of all ages and nationalities participate in its
programme of
public events, workshops and courses. Globe Education also runs an extensive programme in the
Southwark community and creates national and international outreach projects for students and
teachers. For more information this programme of events call Globe Education 020 7902 1438 or visit
www.shakespearesglobe.com/education
Globe Exhibition & Tour is open all year round. For more information visit
www.shakespearesglobe.com/exhibition
Globe On Tour: The Globe’s productions tour the UK and internationally. For more information, please
visit www.shakespearesglobe.com/theatre/on-tour
Globe On Screen: The Globe has strengthened and expanded its commitment to digital innovation in
theatre in 2013, taking current Globe On Screen releases to hundreds of thousands of cinemagoers in
eleven countries. Find out more at www.globeonscreen.com
Globe Shop stocks a variety of products, including theatre season specific merchandise. Shakespeare's
Globe is a registered charity and all profits from sales go towards supporting our educational mission.
Items can be bought at the onsite shop or online at www.shakespearesglobe.com/shop
The Swan Bar and Restaurant and the Foyer Café Bar are open all year round. For reservations and
more information please call 020 7928 9444. www.loveswan.co.uk
The Shakespeare Globe Trust is a registered charity No. 266916. Shakespeare’s Globe receives no
regular public subsidy.
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Biographies: The Sam Wanamaker Playhouse Team
Dominic Dromgoole
Artistic Director, Shakespeare’s Globe
Dominic’s previous work at the Globe includes: Coriolanus and Antony and Cleopatra in 2006, Love’s
Labour’s Lost in 2007and King Lear in 2008. In 2009 he directed Romeo and Juliet and A New World by
Trevor Griffiths and also remounted Love’s Labour’s Lost, which then toured the USA. For the 2010
Kings and Rogues season he directed Henry IV Parts 1 and 2. In 2011 he directed Hamlet for
the Globe’s small-scale tours and in 2012 directed Henry V. In 2013 he directed A Midsummer Night’s
Dream and Gabriel. His production of The Duchess of Malfi will open in the new Sam Wanamaker
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Playhouse at Shakespeare’s Globe on 9 January 2014. Dominic was Artistic Director of the Oxford
Stage Company, 1999-2005, and of the Bush Theatre, 1990-6, and Director of New Plays for the Peter
Hall Company, 1996-7. He has also directed at the Tricycle Theatre, in the West End, and in America,
Romania and Ireland. Dominic has written two books: The Full Room (2001) and Will & Me (2006).
Dr Farah Karim-Cooper
Head of Higher Education and Research, Shakespeare’s Globe
Chair of the Architecture Research Group
Dr Farah Karim-Cooper oversees the higher education provision in Globe Education and in in charge of
research and scholarship at Shakespeare’s Globe. She is Visiting Research Fellow at King’s College
London and convenes the Globe component of the King’s/Globe joint MA in Shakespeare Studies. She
co-supervised the Globe’s first doctoral students, who, in December 2011, received their Ph.Ds through
the AHRC’s Collaborative Doctoral Award scheme. She currently supervises two new Ph.D. students.
In addition to being a member of the Theatre Board for the New Oxford Shakespeare, the Editorial
Board for the scholarly journal Hare and the American Shakespeare Center’s Globe II Research
Committee, Farah is one of the General Editors of the series Shakespeare in the Theatre, published by
the Arden Shakespeare. At the Globe, she is Chair of the Architecture Research Group and has led the
research throughout the design and construction of the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse. She has been
keynote speaker and panellist at national and international conferences on Shakespeare, Renaissance
drama, early modern culture and theatre practice.
In addition to reviewing plays and books in critical journals and publishing articles and essays on
Shakespeare and his contemporaries, her major publications include Cosmetics in Shakespearean and
Renaissance Drama (Edinburgh University Press, 2006) and Shakespeare’s Globe: A Theatrical
Experiment, co-edited with Christie Carson (Cambridge University Press, 2008); co-editor with Tiffany
Stern of Shakespeare’s Theatres and The Effects of Performance (Arden 2012) co-editor with Andrew
Gurr of Moving Shakespeare Indoors (Cambridge University Press, 2014); she is finishing a book called
Shakespeare and the Hand.
Farah’s specialist areas of research are: Shakespearean theatre, early modern culture, feminist
approaches to Shakespeare and his culture, material culture of the Renaissance period, Renaissance
drama and poetry, Shakespeare and the Senses, Shakespearean performance, and the history of
cosmetics and costume in Shakespeare’s time.
Jon Greenfield
Reconstruction Architect, Sam Wanamaker Playhouse
Jon Greenfield started his association with Shakespeare’s Globe in 1986 when he was employed by
Theo Crosby at Pentagram Design Ltd to act as ‘Project Architect’. Jon took a leading role in completing
the architectural design for The International Shakespeare Globe Centre after Theo’s death in 1994,
including securing National Lottery funding and leading a group of specialists to deliver the opening of
the Globe Theatre in June 1997.
Working from the Worcester College drawings, Jon developed the design for the exterior ‘shell’ of the
indoor theatre built at the same time as the Globe nearly 17 years ago.
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Jon has developed the designs for the interior of the playhouse, working closely with Peter McCurdy on
the designs for the traditional oak gallery frame and has produced the designs for the carved and
painted auditorium.
Jon is a Director at Barron and Smith Architects and an Associate Director for the parent company NPS
Allies & Morrison
Architects, Sam Wanamaker Playhouse and Globe foyer redevelopment
Allies and Morrison was founded in 1984. The firm has developed a reputation for producing high
quality design across a diverse range of buildings in many different sectors. It has won 34 RIBA Awards
and has twice been nominated for the Stirling Prize. The office currently employs over 250 staff. Allies
and Morrison are based in an award-winning studio in Southwark, London, which was recently
expanded to include the renovation of a 19th century warehouse and a new timber-clad extension to the
rear.
The completion of the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse and refurbishment of the foyer at Shakespeare’s
Globe coincides with dance company, Rambert, moving into their new headquarters, further along the
Southbank at Waterloo. Other recent completions include: a new boarding house for RIBA Client of the
year 2011 Brighton College and Ash Court, Girton College, Cambridge.
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The start of another industrious year for the practice, 2014 marks the 30 Anniversary of Allies and
Morrison. It will see the completion of: 8-10 Moorgate, an office development in the heart of the City of
London; 2 St Pancras Square, an office building within Allies and Morrison’s masterplan for Kings
Cross; Barrier Park a residential development on the Thames and a new research facility at King’s
College Hospital, Camberwell, London. The construction of the firm’s three civic buildings at Msheireb,
Downtown Doha, are also being completed.
Peter McCurdy
Master Craftsman
With his background in architecture and fine woodworking, Peter’s first reconstruction project was the
complete rebuilding of a dismantled medieval timber framed house in Cambridgeshire. This was
followed by a number of complete reconstructions of historic timber buildings for Open Air Museums
and Preservation Trusts including English Heritage. These opportunities enabled McCurdy to quickly
develop an appreciation of the discipline required at all stages of a reconstruction project to ensure its
historical integrity and highlighted the vital importance of research and finding appropriate historical
examples for a serious and scholarly reconstruction.
As a result of their careful analysis of historic timber buildings coupled with their painstaking work of
dismantling and then reconstructing these historic buildings, Peter and his company McCurdy & Co,
became pioneers in the re-discovery of the traditional craft of timber framing. The particular knowledge
and skills they developed and their experience of undertaking reconstructions led to Peter and his team
being asked by Sam Wannamaker to become the specialist craftsmen to build the Globe.
Since completing the Globe in 1997, McCurdy have completed a number of other major reconstruction
projects. These have included an Elizabethan garden at Kenilworth Castle for English Heritage; a
Japanese farmhouse in Kew Gardens; a Roman Water Wheel for the Museum of London (a Time Team
project); a traditional Turkish Yali in Istanbul; Pilton Barn in Somerset; Medieval shops in the centre of
Uxbridge; the English Farm at a museum in Virginia USA.
All these reconstruction projects have involved the traditional process of ‘pre-fabricating’ the timber
structure off site before erecting it on site. This is where the timbers are selected then carefully set out,
marked, cut, shaped, pre-fitted, drilled for their pegs and finally finished before being transported to site.
On the basis of their previous reconstruction experience including the building the Globe, McCurdy
were appointed as the historic timber specialist craftsmen to undertake the building of the Sam
Wanamaker Playhouse for Shakespeare’s Globe. For the last year Peter McCurdy has been working
with the theatre’s design team and in particular with Jon Greenfield, the Globe architect, carrying out
research to inform the building of the new Indoor Jacobean theatre. The McCurdy workshop team have
been working since September on the pre-fabrication of the timber structure for the new theatre which
will begin to be erected on site in March next year.
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The look of the Globe is very much that of the ‘Wooden O’ as described by Shakespeare himself and
the feel is in the detail and craftsmanship. Although the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse will be much
smaller and have a different look, the feel will come very much from the detail and craftsmanship of the
timber interior. McCurdy’s research for the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse has involved visiting a number
of Jacobean period buildings and carefully recording the original materials, details and finishes to guide
their work on the reconstruction. Peter has paid particular attention to the historic surfaces and any
visible tool marks that add a subtle detail to the aesthetic feel and ultimately the historic integrity of the
reconstruction.
The Globe has become an iconic building and reconstruction where the individual details and finishes
have been crafted with authentic materials and traditional methods to re-create the historic space with a
unique feel. Peter and his team are committed to helping ensure that the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse
is similarly regarded as an exemplary reconstruction, recognised for its craftsmanship and integrity and
a space that offers a unique experience all those that use and enjoy it.
Virtus
Main Contractor
Virtus is a specialist construction and interior fit out company based in London. Its specialism lies in
taking on complex projects for major clients where tight time scales, difficult logistical conditions and
extremely high standards are the norm. Moreover, it offers the Virtus ‘Multi Procurement’ service which
means the company is flexible and responsive to the procurement needs of the individual organisation
instead of dictating terms that don’t suit the project’s needs.
Virtus have a core set of staff that have vast levels of experience working on anything from small
weekend-turnaround projects to multi-million pound turn-key projects. Many of these staff have been
with the company since its inception in 2000; it puts this down to the fun and exciting jobs it takes on,
the commitment to industry leading training and genuinely enjoying its work!
The company’s clients enjoy its approach too; a year on year 80% repeat business rate shows that
dedication to an honest and fair way of doing business with integrity and passion is still respected and
sought out in the marketplace. Each new project Virtus undertakes is considered a means to securing
new long term partners so it works hard to understand its clients’ wider values and goals outside of just
the project parameters to ensure that it is helping, where possible, with their vision.
Virtus’ tagline is ‘Partners in Construction’ and it describes exactly how the company works in its role.
Its expertise in co-ordination and management of the construction function is combined with the inhouse expertise of the client and their professional team. This enables Virtus to establish goals early in
the process by working hand in hand with the client and any professional that may form part of the
overall team.
Clients come to Virtus because they know that their project will be delivered on time, on budget and to
an extremely high standard. They know that Virtus will put their short, mid and long-term objectives to
the forefront of their delivery and work in partnership to deliver excellence at every stage.
Gardiner & Theobald LLP
Project & Cost Management, CDM Coordination & Contract Administration
Gardiner & Theobald LLP is proud to have worked with the Shakespeare’s Globe on the new Sam
Wannamaker Playhouse providing project and cost management, CDM coordinator and contract
administration services.
Gardiner & Theobald LLP is a global property and construction consultancy, working on some of the
world’s most recognisable projects across all sectors of the property and construction industry
delivering in excess of £5billion of construction work every year. With over 170 years’ experience in the
management of all types of projects, the partnership is recognised as one of the leading project and
cost management consultants globally. It also provides complementary services including sustainability,
construction management, construction and property tax advice, consultancy services and facilities
management consultancy amongst others. Some of its recent project experience in the arts and
heritage sector includes: Glyndebourne Opera House, Royal Opera House, Garsington Opera Pavilion,
RSC Courtyard Theatre, Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford upon Avon, London Coliseum, Wigmore
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Hall, Geffrye Museum, Royal Academy of Arts, The Jewish Museum, Ashmolean Museum, The
National Gallery, Tate Modern, Windsor Castle, St Martins in the Field, the Cutty Sark, Clarence House
and Kensington Palace.
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The development of the Shakespeare’s Globe complex and the Sam
Wanamaker Playhouse: a historical narrative
Dr Farah Karim-Cooper
Shakespeare’s company (the King’s Men) owned two theatres after 1608, a great amphitheatre on
Bankside and a hall, indoor playhouse in the Blackfriars precinct. When Sam Wanamaker set out to
reconstruct Shakespeare’s Globe theatre in 1970, he made it his mission to replicate this two-theatre
model. A set of plans for an indoor theatre, discovered in Worcester College Oxford in the 1960s,
enabled Wanamaker to go some way to achieve his goal. The drawings show an auditorium and stage
design that were once believed to be dated to 1616 and originate from the hand of Inigo Jones, the
King’s Surveyor and the first theatre designer in England. Scholarship has since shown that these
drawings were authored by Jones’ protégé John Webb. The designs represent a theatre design
scholars believe Shakespeare would recognise as an example of a pre-Restoration playhouse and
these are the earliest known designs for an English theatre.
In 2009 the Shakespeare Globe was able to turn its attention to its aim to construct an Indoor Jacobean
Theatre. The Globe Architecture Research Group, therefore, reinvigorated discussions about the
historic frame and features that would go into the shell, which had housed Globe Education workshop
studios and rehearsal rooms since the site’s opening in 1997. Principles of ‘authenticity’ were drawn up
in 2009, which reiterated the original mission to create a theatre recognisable by Shakespeare. In
addition to this, Globe Architecture Research Group scholars painstakingly researched visual and
acoustic indoor playing conditions from the Jacobean period with a view to constructing a theatre that
would seem a natural home to the plays of Shakespeare and his contemporaries.
Thus it was decided that the new theatre commissioned by Shakespeare’s Globe should be a Jacobean
archetype rather than a reconstruction of a particular theatre. The Worcester College Drawings were
therefore used as a reference point, documents that could provide a ‘spatial map’ of an indoor
Jacobean playhouse with its curved galleries, pit seating, side-stage Gentleman’s boxes, scenic frons
and upper stage gallery. The drawings are silent on other elements which make them an unreliable set
of plans from which to work precisely: materials, decoration, lighting and acoustic properties of the
space have had to be researched to enable architects to complete the designs. The result, opening in
January 2014, is a unique and historically sound playhouse. Whilst built to complement the Elizabethan
Globe, the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse will provide an entirely different set of conditions and will
provoke a fresh set of discoveries about early English staging that have, till now, not been possible to
make.
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Syndicated interviews with key members of the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse team
Words by Kate Bassett
NB: This copy is free for use in connection with coverage of the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse
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DOMINIC DROMGOOLE
Artistic Director of Shakespeare’s Globe
What are the goals for this new Jacobean-style theatre, built alongside the Globe?
We need to tell an important part of the story of British theatre – a big hole in our present landscape –
namely, the segue from outdoor public theatres like the Globe to indoor, seventeenth-century
playhouses. We have some fantastic, extant, eighteenth-century theatres, like Bristol Old Vic. But
between the Globe and them is a huge gap. The Sam Wanamaker Playhouse will reinvestigate the
repertory of plays performed in small seventeenth-century theatres and how the staging practices of the
day might have affected those plays.
How will the indoor Playhouse augment your work, beside allowing year-round programming?
Our main aim is to understand Shakespeare better. To do so, it’s vital to know about his context and his
contemporaries. So it’s a real pleasure to focus on them now, starting with John Webster, Francis
Beaumont and John Marston. Because I want people to realize this indoor space is "anti-Globe" in
some ways, Webster's Duchess of Malfi seems a good opening gambit – very dark and macabre. We’ll
start staging Shakespeare in there in 2015 or 2016. Meanwhile, we want it to be a home for chamber
concerts too, taking people through the marvels of seventeenth-century music, and we’re staging
Cavalli’s opera L’Ormindo as a collaboration with Kasper Holten, the Royal Opera’s gloriously bold
artistic director.
And how might actors and musicians start adjusting to this timber-framed interior?
The acoustics are bright and dry: very testing but gorgeous for music. Less so for some of the ruder
instruments we've had in the Globe, such as the cornet or shawm, but fine and light sounds like the
violin, lute and harpsichord are exquisite. In terms of acting, there’ll be many discoveries to come, but
we took A Midsummer Night's Dream from the Globe into the wee one, as a one-day experiment, and
the differences are extraordinary. An actor needs a front-foot, swift tempo in the Globe, putting images
out there thick and fast as they fly through the audience and the open roof. In the tiny Playhouse, they
can't get out. Deliver the images too quickly and the air becomes clotted. Everyone says that the fiveact structure provided breaks for trimming the candles, but I think they might also be breathing spaces,
a palette-cleanser.
What about the child actors forming the cast of Marston’s The Malcontent (originally premiered
by boy players circa 1603)?
Besides having lighter voices, child actors tend to emote less, which is a massive relief and means you
can get long passages of abstracted, intellectual thought very clean – which is quite something.
And are there hidden stage mechanics?
We want a hydraulic trap beneath the stage, replicating a brilliant one I've been to see at a Spanish
seventeenth-century theatre, Corral de Comedias in Alcalá de Henares. We have a sky trap as well,
because many plays of the period have masque-like elements, such as the descending god. We're
going to try to achieve that. Backstage is pretty straightforward. However, The Duchess of Malfi has
huge coups de théâtre, like the presentation of the dead bodies in wax. So, actually, a grand sense of
entrance is needed and it'll be really busy backstage.
***
DR FARAH KARIM-COOPER
Head of Higher Education & Research at the Globe, Chair of the Architecture Research Group
What is the backstory of the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse?
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In the 1970s, when battling to reconstruct Shakespeare's Globe, Sam Wanamaker understood the
historic importance of also building a winter indoor theatre. The King's Men, Shakespeare's troupe, had
been a two-playhouse company once they took over Blackfriars in 1608 – their productions moving
between the two. Also the Worcester College drawings – the earliest known architectural designs for an
indoor English theatre – had come to light. They were attributed to Inigo Jones initially and dated at
around 1616. Therefore Sam built the brick shell to house the indoor theatre, based on those drawings.
That brick shell then went into a long gestation period, didn't it?
I arrived in medias res. The Playhouse’s completion was put on hold for years, then in about 2005, we
invited art historian Gordon Higgott to an architectural symposium. He reattributed the drawings to
Jones' protégé, John Webb, and dated them much later than 1616. Most scholars have now settled on
the 1660s – post-Shakespeare.
I took on chairing the Globe's Architecture Research Group of academics, archeological and
architectural experts, and theatre practitioners. And for a while we toyed with reconstructing Blackfriars.
I established a subcommittee of further experts, and our Reconstruction Architect, Jon Greenfield,
designed a sort of hybrid Blackfriars, piecing together all the research findings. But everyone expects
high levels of authenticity from us. Blackfriars was a converted Dominican monastery, so we would
have had to reconstruct a thirteenth-century monastery, if not reenact the Reformation! And this inside a
red-brick shell that was meant to look seventeenth-century?
So what was the solution?
We turned back to the Worcester College drawings. Our architects determined that the
drawings weren't of a theatre that was actually built. As plans, they did not fully make sense – with
view-blocking walls, for instance. What's great is that, if drawn in the 1660s, they were retrospective,
looking back to a late Renaissance layout. For instance, there is no proscenium arch in the
drawings, but rather the traditional frons (the upstage wall) with doors in it and a musicians’ gallery
above. So Jon Greenfield, the master carpenter Peter McCurdy and other experts on historic buildings,
materials and decoration discussed what they'd build – from those drawings – if they were Jacobeans.
We've done diligent research, scrutinising play scripts from different theatres’ repertoires for clues;
surveying numerous historic buildings; amassing many types of evidence to create an archetype.
What challenges might be ahead?
Visibility, some of the sightlines. There’s a debate in the Architecture Research Group as to whether the
theatre was for hearing or seeing back then. Because people at the time said they went to ‘hear’ a play,
some of the Group’s academics may say the sightlines are less important. But I think Elizabethan and
Jacobean theatre exploited all the senses.
***
JON GREENFIELD
Reconstruction Architect for the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse
Having been involved from the start with the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, can you outline the
key building phases – outer shell and interior?
I built the red-brick shell in the 1990s, based on those Worcester College drawings which were thought
to replicate an early seventeenth-century Inigo Jones playhouse. Though they were subsequently reanalysed as by Jones' pupil, John Webb, and from the 1660s, we could still use them to construct an
auditorium, which Shakespeare would have recognized, inside the shell. Webb was – handily for us –
out of date, perhaps because theatre had been banned by the Puritans. His drawings depict a
Jacobean theatre, as it were, given a neoclassical overhaul.
What did reverting back, stripping away his neoclassicm, involve?
Webb was using correct classical formulas, whereas the Jacobean period had this wonderful fusion of
Gothic and a half-knowledge of the classical, so all its proportions were a bit funny and the decoration
eclectic. The hardest thing on this project was recreating the 'right wrongness'. For example, wooden
Jacobean columns are peculiarly narrow, as if stretched, because you don't get timbers of the girth
required in neoclassical proportions – later achieved with stone or plaster cladding. We alighted on very
fine Jacobean columns at Chilham Castle, to replicate in the Playhouse.This project is like a scholarly
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essay, everything researched. You must have your sources and a footnote. So when we've got a
decorative handrail, it's not just our invention, it's something carefully copied from somewhere. But all
these elements could create a horrible mishmash. Making them blended and harmonious has been
crucial.
What’s the source of the celestial painting on the Playhouse's ceiling?
A room in Cullen House in Scotland, which burnt down in the 1980s but had been superbly
photographed. We've changed the coloration slightly because the sky at Cullen House was a blue
pigment and they were generally expensive. Jacobean theatre people would probably have been on a
budget – even then! – so we made it a soft grey which would have been a simple mixture of lime and
soot – though sadly we weren't allowed to use the authentic old ingredients for complicated fireregulation reasons. We have used gold leaf on the three-dimensional stars to help with the low light
level: that fabulous, burning yellow coming alive in the candlelight.
Are there other historic gadgets for lighting?
Martin White, a scholar and light specialist, has visited the Czech Republic’s Český Krumlov where they
have the oldest surviving theatre in Europe and it still has its candle set-up. They’ve got brilliant
equipment, including glass orbs that you can fill with different colours of water to produce a fabulous
spectrum of light. I also saw Dominic [Dromgoole] experimenting with The Winter's Tale in candlelight. It
suddenly became believable, as never before: the actress pretending to be a statue in the gloom, very
still for the periods when she was illuminated. I think staging plays by candlelight is going to produce
amazing dramatic effects.
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The first season of work in the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse
What follows is a brief summary of the four main events in the inaugural programme of work in the Sam
Wanamaker Playhouse: The Duchess of Malfi, The Knight of the Burning Pestle, L’Ormindo and The
Malcontent. Musical and theatrical happenings of exceptional range and variety will intersperse the
programme of four plays in the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse. For more information visit:
http://www.shakespearesglobe.com/theatre/whats-on/sam-wanamaker-playhouse Listings for the full
programme can be found at the end of the below summary.
The Duchess of Malfi
Directed by Artistic Director Dominic Dromgoole, John Webster’s macabre classic The Duchess of
Malfi will open the inaugural season of work in the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse. Gemma Arterton
returns to the Globe in the title role; Arterton made her professional debut in the outdoor theatre in a
2007 production of Love’s Labours Lost. The first ever performance in the evocative candlelit
atmosphere of the unique space will take place on 9 January, with Press Night on 15 January.
The Knight of the Burning Pestle
The anarchic and experimental comedy, written by Francis Beaumont will begin its run in the Playhouse
on 20 February. Beaumont’s uproarious and experimental play was written to be performed at the
Blackfriars playhouse by the Children of the Queen’s Revels. Opening as a bourgeois comedy of
manners, the play quickly disintegrates into a surreal, genre-defying caper when two members of the
‘audience’ invade the stage, express their dissatisfaction with the evening’s entertainment and start to
rework the play to suit their tastes. The result is a winning combination of salty prose, charming songs
and metatheatrical mayhem.
L’Ormindo
In a groundbreaking collaboration between the Globe and the Royal Opera, Cavalli’s L’Ormindo will
open in the venue on 25 March. The opera, an outrageous comedy about a sex-starved young queen
and her two would-be lovers, will be directed by Kasper Holten, Director of Opera at the Royal Opera.
This production of L’Ormindo will see the Globe work with the Royal Opera to extend its research into
early performance into the field of opera. This new production of Cavalli’s romantic farce, written in
1644, will mark the first performances of the opera in the UK since Raymond Leppard’s arrangement
was heard at Glyndebourne in 1967.
The Malcontent
From 3 to 19 April the Globe Young Players, a new company of talented 12-to-16-year-olds, will
perform John Marston’s dazzlingly acerbic. The new company’s involvement is an exciting echo of the
play’s debut in Blackfriars playhouse, where it was performed by the Children of the Chapel. The Young
Players company was formed in 2013 following a countrywide search. The company are being trained
by the Globe’s resident experts in the craft and performance of early modern drama.
FIRST SEASON LISTINGS
Booking:
Phone
020 7401 9919
In person
Mon-Sat 10am-6pm (8pm on performance days)
Sundays
10am-5pm (7pm on performances days)
Online
shakespearesglobe.com
Tickets
Plays and candlelit concerts £10-£60
Opera £10-£100
Comedy £10-35
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The Duchess of Malfi by John Webster
9 January – 16 February 2014
Directed by Dominic Dromgoole
Press Night: 15 January 2014
Tuesday - Saturday at 7.30pm
Thursday, Saturday and Sunday at 2.30pm
The Knight of the Burning Pestle by Francis Beaumont
20 February – 30 March 2014
Press Night: 26 February 2014
Tuesday - Saturday at 7.30pm (not 25, 26, 28 or 29 March)
Thursday, Saturday and Sunday at 2.30pm
L’Ormindo – co-produced Shakespeare’s Globe and the Royal Opera
25 March – 12 April 2014
Music by Francesco Cavalli; libretto by Giovanni Faustini; English translation by Christopher Cowell;
conducted by Christian Curnyn; directed by Kasper Holten; performed by the Orchestra of the Early
Opera Company
Press Night: 25 March 2014
Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday at 7.30pm
The Malcontent by John Marston, performed by the Globe Young Players
3 – 19 April 2014
Press Night: 10 April 2014
3, 10, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19 April at 7.30pm
Saturday and Sunday at 2.30pm
Ellen Terry with Eileen Atkins adapted and performed by Eileen Atkins
12 – 23 January 2014
Sunday and Monday at 7.30pm
Candlelit Concerts
Pinnock’s Passions: Mozart in London
Performed by Trevor Pinnock, Kristian Bezuidenhout, Carolyn Sampson, Alina Ibragimova and
Chiaroscuro
2 and 3 March 2014
2 and 3 March at 7.30pm
John Williams Series: A four-concert series curated by John Williams
9 March 2014 – performed by John Williams and Pavel Steidl
10 March 2014 – performed by John Williams, Matthew Wadsworth, Craig Ogden, Max Baillie,
Laurence Ungless, Timothy Evans
16 March 2014 – performed by Tunde Jegede and Derek Gripper
17 March 2014 – performed by John Williams, John Etheridge and Derek Gripper
Sunday and Monday at 7.30pm
Rubberbandits
30 and 31 March 2014 at 7.30pm
The Boat from Venice to Padua performed by I Fagiolini
6 and 7 April 2014 at 7.30pm
Armania performed by Dudukner Ensemble from Armenia with Levon Chilingirian, Alexander
Chaushian, Cevanne Horrocks-Hopayian and Tereza Gevorgyan.
13 and 14 April 2014 at 7.30pm
Music from a Jacobean Court
15 and 16 June 2014
Jordi Savall presents...
22 and 23 June 2014
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The Sam Wanamaker Playhouse images
A full selection of images of the interior of the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, and production stills from
The Duchess of Malfi are available from the Globe’s image library: http://press.shakespearesglobe.com/
Once you have signed up and received your password via email, you will be able to login and download
images in high resolution.
**
Press contacts
For all enquiries relating to the opening of the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse please contact
Ben Chamberlain or Charlotte Bayley at The Corner Shop PR
0207 831 7657 | [email protected] | [email protected]
For all enquiries relating to Shakespeare’s Globe or the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse season of work
please contact Emma Draper or Julia Hallawell at Shakespeare’s Globe on +44 207 902 1491/1492 or
email [email protected] / [email protected].
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