The Sam Wanamaker Playhouse is an indoor theatre forming part of the Shakespeare's Globe complex, along with the recreated Globe Theatre on Bankside in Southwark, London. Built by making use of 17th-century plans for an indoor English theatre, the playhouse recalls the layout and style of the Blackfriars Theatre (which also existed in Shakespeare's time), although it is not an exact reconstruction. Unlike the Globe, the original Blackfriars was not in Southwark but rather across the river.
 The Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, the Globe's replica Jacobean theatre | |
 | |
| Location | Southwark London, SE1 United Kingdom |
|---|---|
| Public transit |   London Bridge |
| Owner | The Shakespeare Globe Trust |
| Construction | |
| Opened | 2014 |
| Architect | Pentagram (shell); Jon Greenfield, in collaboration with Allies and Morrison |
| Website | |
| ShakespearesGlobe.com | |
The shell of the playhouse was built during the construction of the Globe complex in the 1990s. The smaller unfinished building was used as a space for education workshops and rehearsals until enough money was raised to complete its true-to-the-period interior. It opened for public performances in January 2014, named after actor Sam Wanamaker, the leading figure in the Globe's reconstruction.
History
editThe shell was intended to house a simulacrum of the sixteenth-century Blackfriars Theatre from the opposite side of the Thames,[1] adapted as a playhouse in 1596 during Elizabeth's reign. The Lord Chamberlain's Men, Shakespeare's playing company, began to use it in 1608, five years into the Jacobean era.[2]
As no reliable plans of the Blackfriars Theatre are known, the plan for the new theatre was based on drawings found in the 1960s at Worcester College, Oxford, at first thought to date from the early 17th century,[3] and to be the work of Inigo Jones. The shell was built to accommodate a theatre as specified by the drawings, and the planned name was the Inigo Jones Theatre.[4] In 2005, the drawings were dated to 1660 and attributed to John Webb.[3] They nevertheless represent the earliest known plan for an English theatre, and are thought to approximate the layout of the Blackfriars Theatre.[1] Some features believed to be typical of earlier in the 17th century were added to the new theatre's design.[3]
The shell was initially used as a rehearsal space, and for education projects.[1] On 24 February 2012 it was announced that the new theatre would be named the Sam Wanamaker Theatre, after the founder of the Shakespeare Globe Trust, and work on it would commence in October that year. It was also announced that the total cost would be £7 million, and that an anonymous donor had pledged £1 for every £1 the theatre itself raised, up to a maximum of £3 million.[5]
The theatre was completed at a cost of £7.5 million.[6] Designed by Jon Greenfield, in collaboration with Allies and Morrison, it is an oak structure built inside the building's brick shell.[7] The thrust stage is surmounted by a musicians' gallery, and the theatre has an ornately painted ceiling. The seating capacity is 340, with benches in a pit and two horse-shoe galleries,[6] placing the audience close to the actors.[8] Shutters around the first gallery admit artificial daylight. When the shutters are closed, lighting is provided by beeswax candles mounted in sconces, as well as on six height-adjustable chandeliers and even held by the actors.[6] The design incorporated extensive fire precautions.[7]
Under the slightly revised name of the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, the theatre's opening two productions were of plays first performed at the original Blackfriars Theatre: The Duchess of Malfi opened on 15 January 2014 and this was followed by the comedy The Knight of the Burning Pestle.[6][9] In the winter 2015–16 season Shakespeare's four late tragicomic plays – Pericles, Cymbeline, The Winter's Tale and The Tempest – were staged.[10]
References
edit- ^ a b c "Shakespeare's Globe Announces Plans to Build an Indoor Jacobean Theatre" (PDF) (Press release). Shakespeare's Globe. 20 January 2011. Retrieved 24 October 2011.
- ^ Bowsher; Miller (2009: 19)
- ^ a b c Williams, Holly (22 June 2013). "All the world's a stage (or two): Shakespeare's Globe to be joined by a candlelit indoor theatre". The Independent. Retrieved 30 January 2014.
- ^ "Innovation in the theatre: Old spaces and new globes". The Economist. 19 May 2005. Retrieved 30 January 2014. (registration required)
- ^ Louise Jury (24 February 2012). "Globe theatre appeal … stage two". Evening Standard. Archived from the original on 26 February 2012. Retrieved 24 February 2012.|
- ^ a b c d Coveney, Michael (16 January 2014). "The Duchess of Malfi (Sam Wanamaker Playhouse)". What's On Stage. Retrieved 21 January 2014.
- ^ a b Moore, Rowan (12 January 2014). "Sam Wanamaker Playhouse – review". The Observer. Retrieved 21 January 2014 – via The Guardian.
- ^ Spencer, Charles (16 January 2014). "The Duchess of Malfi, Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, review". The Telegraph. Retrieved 21 January 2014. (registration required)
- ^ Bosanquet, Sam. "Sam Wanamaker Playhouse announces new productions after 'triumphant' first season". What's On Stage. London. Retrieved 16 November 2022.
- ^ Tosh, Will (2018). Playing indoors : staging early modern drama in the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse. London: Bloomsbury Publishing. p. xxv. ISBN 978-1-350-01388-9.