Photo Source: John Haynes
The programming brings four Globe productions—"The Merry Wives of Windsor," "Henry IV Part 1," "Henry IV Part 2," and "Henry VIII"—to audiences who might not have the chance to travel to London to see a live production. "Merry Wives" aired in June, and the next segment, "Henry IV Part 1," will hit theaters Aug. 1.
"We're very much aware that recorded live theater, although that's an oxymoron in itself, is increasingly going to become part of what every theater does," says Dominic Dromgoole, the Globe's artistic director. "And it's increasingly become part of how you reach out to new audiences."
This programming serves to make local communities aware of nationally renowned institutions like the Globe, and it also works on the community level. "We're seeing a landscape where arts are really challenged," says Dan Diamond, vice president of NCM Fathom. "What this does is create a real opportunity to reignite that excitement about the arts in the local community."
While some may argue recording live theater cheapens the experience, Dromgoole believes new technologies bring the opportunity to authentically capture a production's inherent theatricality while creating an essential historical record of Globe productions.
Stage vs. Screen
Shakespeare's Globe is a true-to-life reconstruction of the 1599 theater structure for which the Bard wrote many of his most famous plays. Diamond says the programming aims to create the "ultimate immersive experience for the performance itself." However, the Globe's historically accurate architecture and the intimate relationship with the audience the open-air structure fosters is one of the theater's main draws.
Dromgoole says he was initially hesitant about broadcasting these productions to cinemas, because these are not Shakespeare's best-known works and the filming process could prove reductive to the theatrical form. However, the productions proved to be huge successes during their 2010 run at the Globe, and Dromgoole was amazed by what can be achieved with new technology.
"You can hear the verse spoken as clearly if not slightly more clearly than you can in the theater," he says, still in awe. "We just found it rather exhilarating."
The technology can be distracting at times for the performers on stage, however. Roger Allam, who plays the iconic Falstaff in "Henry IV" parts 1 and 2, says the cameras were initially disconcerting.
"Sometimes it enters your head, 'Oh, this is going to be the one that survives of all the many performances,' " recalls Allam. "It's a little bit off-putting, but you get used to it. The main thing about the Globe is there's 700 people all standing right in front of you."
These audience members, called groundlings in the Bard's day, pay only £5 for a ticket and stand under the open roof for the duration of the performance.
"The audience has a very powerful effect on any given performance," says Dromgoole, adding that the audience plays a part in the filmed version as well. "You can always see the audience across the stage. There no pretense that's it's not in a theater. And that's quite thrilling in a cinema, to see something that's admitting its own theatricality."
Performing at the Globe is an experience for the actor as well, thanks to the historical structure and the relationship to the audience. Allam relished the opportunity to play Falstaff, for which he won the Olivier Award, in the space because of his character's plentiful soliloquies and interplay with the crowd.
"It's just rowdier and noisier and more kind of rambunctious, which gives you a taste of what it might have been like in Shakespeare's time," Allam says of performing at the Globe. "Playing a part like Falstaff is sort of perfect there because Falstaff never stops chatting to the audience. It's a glorious thing to play that part in that space."
While performing for stage is much different from performing for film, Dromgoole says he made sure to encourage the actors not to think about the cameras and to keep the production true to the stage version.
"If you want a record of those performances, you don't want a record of how they do them for camera," he says. "You want a record of how they do them in the theater."
For the Record
One of the Globe's long-term goals is to create a filmed version of all 37 of Shakespeare's plays. The theater is about to finish the cycle of producing the entire canon, with five to go. However, only about 10 productions have been filmed.
"Whether they're good or bad, there's always going to be something definitive about them simply because this is the architecture that Shakespeare wrote for," Dromgoole argues.
Shakespeare was writing the life of his era, arguably the goal of any playwright, and Dromgoole believes his plays relate to any society at any time.
"They're always full of an infinity of parallels to everything that's going on in the modern world," Dromgoole says of Shakespeare's plays. "Because we're able to do the plays as themselves, rather than do them as a version of themselves, we're able to say they're about an enormous amount rather than about a specific thing."
Movie theater audiences will get a better sense of the Globe's history and mission through a short featurette aired alongside the production. Diamond argues that these segments, which accompany many of NCM Fathom's programs, give audiences a more complete picture of the production and inspire some to contribute to the arts in their communities and maybe fly to London for a live production.
And for those actors who are inspired to take up Shakespeare and maybe perform at the Globe one day, Allam shares a few words of wisdom.
"Practice, learn the lines, work hard, don't be too respectful," Allam advises. "Sometimes we can get too hung up on the fact that the material of the play is very finely wrought language. The thing is, it's hugely enjoyable if you can get your head and tongue around it. It should be fun and we should have fun with it."
"Henry IV Part 1" hits movie theaters nationwide on August 1. For tickets, go to www.fathomevents.com.
