Here We Globe Again ...

Continuing this week’s theme of reconstructing Elizabethan theaters, the North of England could soon have its own “wooden O” to rival the reconstructed Globe in London.

You’ve probably seen this building before in Shakespeare in Love, the 1998 film staring Joseph Fiennes to Gwyneth Paltrow. The original film set has been in storage for over ten years after being gifted to Judi Dench (who played Queen Elizabeth I in the film).

Dench has donated the set to the British Shakespeare Company and wants to see it (with a little structural reinforcement) become a major Shakespeare center for the North of England.

Although this would be a fantastic cultural asset for Northern England, negotiations have only just begun. Reportedly, the British Shakespeare Company is in talks with York, Manchester and Sheffield about the theater’s location.

I’m very excited about this news and believe that seeing a Shakespeare play in an authentic setting can reveal new dynamics in the Bard’s writing.

In which city would you like to see the theater built? Perhaps you would prefer to see the film set shipped to another country altogether? Where? Why?