Year 10–13 Trip to see As You Like It at Shakespeare's Globe Theatre
On Friday 16 October after school, we had the wonderful opportunity to watch As You Like It performed at the Globe Theatre. Despite being a long addition to a school day, it was absolutely worth it to see the actors performing in the likeness of the Elizabethan period, and demonstrate their talent on stage. The Globe itself was smaller than I had expected. However, this helped the actors to interact with the audience and raise the atmosphere of the entire performance. Even though the original play script is not a musical, there was a lot of music throughout the play and the audience was involved in a lot of the singing as well, which was a delight. As a GCSE Art student, the creation of the set throughout the play was extremely admirable, done in short periods of time to allow the actors the time to switch costumes and characters backstage while changing the set for the benefit of the audience’s understanding. We were fortunate enough to be seated lower down and quite close to the stage, allowing for close interactions with the performers (they definitely smiled at us during the ending bows). Overall, it was an amazing experience and I hope to be able to go again, whether with the school or in my own time. – Ishita, Year 11
The Shakespeare trip was such a fantastic time and I feel so blessed to have experienced such an amazing show! It was so interesting to see a play performed in its original prose, as well as the lovely costumes being very accurate to the time it was set and performed too. Personally, my favourite part was the set, which started with many large sheets of blank white paper. However, little by little throughout the play, various characters came on to actively draw on the set using charcoal, paint rollers and other art mediums – as the play was still going on! As a theatre lover myself, I’d never seen anything like it and I found it such an ingenious and creative idea, partly because of the individuality of it all and how no set would ever be the same, but also just because of how much more human-made the set felt since we as the audience, got to see it being created in front of our eyes, truly a privilege! The Globe itself, though very cold, was also a lovely venue to be in and the way the actors interacted with the audience throughout the play – no matter where you sat – made it feel very immersive and very Shakespearean! - Adaora, Year 11