Since January, Acacia and Pine have been studying William Shakespeare’s Macbeth and on Tuesday, 16th June, had the opportunity to visit The Globe Theatre in London.
On our arrival, we had a quick tour of the visitor centre and the shop where all manner of Shakespeare related merchandise could be purchased before walking along the river to sketch and picnic close by the ‘Wobbly Bridge’ and, with St Paul’s Cathedral opposite, we had a wonderful view of London’s skyline.
Our tour guide at The Globe was Kirsty (who is also a member of the RSC).  She gave us a short talk about the original Globe Theatre; how it had been destroyed and how the new building came into being before taking us inside the building.  We were all bowled over by the interior; it was absolutely magnificent - it was a little like walking into a tardis, deceptively large compared to the exterior. We also saw some of the cast getting ready to perform the matinee performance of ‘As we like it’.
We were then taken into one of the studios for a workshop on Macbeth.  Kirsty worked with the children on a number of exercises on how to communicate a range of ideas by using gestures, body language and speech.  She also discussed various key parts of the play and the hidden meanings in some of the speeches.
All the children worked enthusiastically – Kirsty commented that it had ‘been a very long time since she had come across such a polite, enthusiastic, knowledgeable group of children’.  They were superb! Mrs Simons