Shakespeare's Globe Theatre

The OM took me on a mystery date tonight.

All I knew was it was somewhere in London. The OM doesn't need an excuse to get on a train - he really needs to get out more! I thought may be he was taking me to see The Railway Children at Waterloo.

The next clue was "how far do you work from Blackfriars?" (not that near).

He met me for a quick bite to eat at the Shakespeare's Head - see where we're going with this?!

He then asked what was the quickest way to get to an old disused power station - Tate Modern. So I assumed that's where we're headed for - nice, an art exhibition.

Having side stepped a film premiere at Waterloo (see below), we walked along the South Bank to the Tate Modern. By the time we reached there I was bursting to go to the loo (too much information, I know). Shock horror! The Tate Modern was closed!

We reached the Globe Theatre a little further along the South Bank and the OM said "I'm sure there must be a loo in here" and produced the tickets.

We saw Much Ado About Nothing which is a favourite of mine - I love the Kenneth Branagh/Emma Thompson film version. Even the OM enjoyed it and he's not noted for going to the theatre or reading much!

We had seats with a restricted view but in actual fact the cast played to all sides of the stage and we saw some bits people at the front would have missed.

The cast perform the play as it would have been performed in Shakespeare's time. So there's no microphones - we struggle to hear some of the dialogue, and some of the auditorium and stage are outside. Boy did it rain last night! Fortunately we were undercover but there were times when the actors were getting very wet and made some jokes about the rain.

We had a great evening only slightly marred by the fact it was impossible to get a bus back to Waterloo at 11 o'clock at night.



[Apologies to Jennifer Aniston if she's reading this blip. I'm sorry I missed you at the Imax Waterloo last night but I had a date. I'm sorry also that you had to attend a film premiere in such a naff area. Whilst the South Bank has its attraction it's no place for a Hollywood A Lister.]