Scene:- Globe Theatre, London Dramatis personae:-
Jen - an Irish country wench
Iain - a drunken fellow
Andrew - scoundrel and kinsman to the wench
Helen - a sweet-faced gentlewoman wedded to the scoundrel.
Now, good morrow, friends..
At two score years and ten, I prithee forgive that I be untutored in the rudiments of Shakespeare's genius. To seek wise remedy, I ventured forth to London neath the churlish chiding of a summer storm........
....to see "As You Like It" at the Globe. I prepared well - I read the play from beginning to end (and didn't understand it), I read the York notes of the play (and didn't understand it), I researched online (and didn't understand it). However, once the actors walked out on stage, it magically made sense, with characters I could identify with, a plot I could follow and jokes I could laugh at. Within the magnificent Globe Theatre, I felt transported back to an Elizabethan age to share in the magic of live theatre, undiluted by the demands of a post-TV audience. The rain and the thunder all added to the atmosphere.... admittedly from the shelter of the middle gallery looking down on the devotees standing in the circle in their cagoules. Only the jumbo jets passing over every minute brought you reluctantly and all too frequently back to the 21st century.....
And so, I beseech thee, friends good and true, to bear good opinion of my new knowledge. "All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players: they have their exits and entrances; and one man in his time plays many parts.."
What a stage we are on .....play your part well.
God rest you merry!
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