Farewell to the Pop-Up Globe

Our revels now are ended. These our actors,                   
As I foretold you, were all spirits, and
Are melted into air, into thin air,
And, like the baseless fabric of this vision,
The cloud-capp'd towers, the gorgeous palaces,
The solemn temples, the great globe itself,
Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve,
And, like this insubstantial pageant faded,
Leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff
As dreams are made on, and our little life
Is rounded with a sleep.

- The Tempest IV.1.148-58.

With a full house, a standing ovation, deafening cheers and quite a few misty eyes, the Pop-Up Globe season came to an end last night. Deconstruction begins this morning and many people will be very sad to see their happy home disappear into air, into thin air.

I am not usually a huge fan of Dr Seuss (too glib for my taste) but one of his oft-quoted proverbs seems fitting here: Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened. The three months of the Globe season have been magical. I will always remember them, and always feel privileged to have been a part of them.

 

As Miles Gregory said in his speech last night, that it happened at all is really quite amazing. Dumping a hundred tons of scaffolding in a car park is a crazy idea... but what a brilliant one!

The Globe may be coming down, but - at the risk of sounding clichéd - the memories remain. For me Twelfth Night will always stand out, for its infectious mirth, its light touch, its joy and its poignancy. By the end of the run I knew it by heart.

Over the course of the Globe journey, yours truly has

* seen 17 performances - Twelfth Night 9 times; Romeo and Juliet 5 times; Hamlet, Antony & Cleo, and The Tempest once each

* ushered for 12 of those - Twelfth Night x 6, Romeo and Juliet x 4, Hamlet x 1, Antony & Cleo x1

* sold about 40 programmes, which also meant

* learning how to operate an Eftpos machine - from the vendor's end!

* scanned about 250 tickets (very stressful, because I did it for the first time at the very last public performance and my machine kept jamming) 

* assisted four fainting groundlings

* broken one pane of glass in one of the Gentleman's Rooms, tidying up late one night after the performance (the picture frame was balanced precariously on the scaffolding and, whisking out the rubbish a little too efficiently, I caught it with my sleeve)

* handed out about 200 bars of chocolate as part of a Cadbury promotion 

* earned four complementary tickets, one Pop-Up Globe T-shirt, and one sketched portrait

* met many lovely people

* dealt with several people complaining about their seats, the stairs, scaffolding in their sight line, or Shakespeare generally (happily these were far outweighed by the hundreds of people who came out with beaming smiles saying, 'Thankyou, it was wonderful!')

* taken dozens of photographs (most of them terrible)

* by hook and by crook, persuaded all of my brothers to experience the Globe (sorry, Peter :P)

* written one letter to the NZ Herald

* published 22 blog posts with the label 'Pop-Up Globe' (sorry, dear readers)

* sung the praises of the Globe far and wide to anyone who would listen (sorry, folks)

* achieved fleeting fame by being the only person to toss a ball into a bucket wedged on the middle tier of the actors' tower (long story) on their first attempt (needless to say this was a complete fluke)

* sweltered in the heat of summer and shivered in the rain and wind of late autumn

* seen hundreds - thousands - of people having the time of their lives

So many memories... 

Farewell. Parting is such sweet sorrow...