On a 1995 visit to London, one of our stops was the then-under-construction Globe Theatre, intended to be an authentic and working recreation of the theatre that hosted most of Shakespeare’s work in the late 16th and early 17th century.
The re-opening took place in 1997, marking twenty years of planning, evangelism and fund-raising by the director Sam Wanamaker. On a later visit, we got to attend a performance there.
On the first visit, my wife bought a souvenir T-shirt that described it as the ‘world’s most fascinating construction project,’ and considering that it had to be both authentic and in compliance with modern fire regulations, that was likely true. A special permit allowed it to be the first thatched roof in London since the Great Fire.
And in a way, construction project is an apt mode for the Globe, which has since added additional display and working spaces. When it was first built in 1599, it re-used most of the timbers from a nearby theatre that had closed. Fifteen years later, it was rebuilt. Thirty years after that, it closed and was dismantled; much of the material was again re-used in other buildings!
