Globe Theatre Burns Down on June 29, 1613

 

In honor of Garrison Keillor and the Writer’s Almanac, I post this quote from one of his column reruns that are now appearing daily. As a theatre historian and play director in a previous working life, I was privileged to have directed five of Shakespeare’s marvelous plays and have published a book titled London Theatre Walks, which features some material on the reconstruction of the building.  

“On this day (June 29^th) in 1613, Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre burned to the ground. The thatched roof caught on fire after a theatrical cannon misfired during a production of Henry VIII. Only one man was hurt; his breeches caught on fire, but the quick-thinking fellow put them out with a bottle of ale.

The Globe had been the home of Shakespeare’s company, the Lord Chamberlain’s Men, since 1599; previously, his plays had been performed in a house known simply as The Theatre, but their lease expired in 1598. The troupe found a loophole: the lease was for the land only, and the company owned the building, so the Lord Chamberlain’s Men dismantled the old theater while the landlord was away for Christmas and brought it with them across the Thames from Shoreditch to Southwark. They used its timbers to build the framework of the Globe, which was also unique in being the first theater built to house a specific theatrical company, and to be paid for by the company itself.

After the fire, the Globe was rebuilt in 1614, and it was in use until 1642, when the Puritans closed all the theaters in London. The building was pulled down two years later to make room for tenements. It was rebuilt in the 1990s, and except for concessions made for fire safety, it is as close to the original Globe as scholars and architects were able to make it.”

The Globe was re-constructed on the banks of the Thames in London not far from its original site and I took this photo from the Tate Modern Art Gallery some years ago

                                                    

                                                

You can still subscribe to the Writer’s Almanac re-runs at thewritersalmanac@substack.com

 

 

A GREAT DELIVERANCE by Elizabeth George

 

Having recently read and reviewed Elizabeth George’s latest book (SOMETHING TO HIDE) and finding it wanting in clarity and far too long, I thought a trip to the past was called for. I was lucky to find a copy of A GREAT DELIVERANCE in our Grand Living Library. This was Ms. George’s breakthrough first Lynley novel and was published in 1988. You will be pleased to note that it is everything the most recent outing is not.  

The title comes from the story of Joseph in the Old Testament. He says to his brothers that he is not there to punish them for selling him, but to “save your lives by a great deliverance.” It is half the length, tightly plotted, and full of spot-on description. We meet the upper-crust Lynley for the first time and he finds that he has been assigned to mentor a struggling working class Sergeant Barbara Havers. She had been demoted to street cop and is now given a final chance to keep her detective’s stripes. As you might expect, Linley and Havers mix as well as oil and water, and this sets up a relationship that will continue to provide contrast for the next thirty years.  As the pair investigate an ax murder in the bucolic Yorkshire countryside, we get a full treatment of Lynley’s previous love affairs and Haver’s own dark family past. The breathtaking climax makes the history behind the brutal killing even more terrible than the crime itself while taking both detectives to the edge of despair.

The descriptions in the early book are tight, colorful, tactile, and often extended by literary references. Take this phrase, “This was no grappling in an Elsinore grave” or this view of Linley. “He examined himself in the mirror at her words, his cigarette dangling from his lips, his eyes narrowed against the smoke, part Sam Spade part Algernon Moncrieff.” 

A humorous touch is added with the introduction of the funniest “Ugly American” you may ever see.  Hank Watson, an American dentist and his wife are visiting Britain for a tax write-off dental convention. They clash resoundingly with English society when, at a formal dinner, Hank tries to explain the “queers” in Laguna Beach to Mr. St. James--Linley’s good friend. And witness this description.  Hank’s hand was “fat, slightly sweaty” and “like shaking hands with a warm, uncooked fish.”  You might also appreciate the picture of Barbara Haver’s frumpiness when she puts on a dress. According to George, she resembled a white garbed barrel with legs.”

All in all, if you love Ms. George’s books as much as I do, you might better re-read some of the earlier ones while you await her discovery that bigger is not necessarily better.  

 

 

My major takeaway from last night's Jan. 6 tv presentation

 My biggest takeaway from last night. The cool and careful laying out of the timeline proved this was not a protest that got out of hand and turned into a riot and finally into an insurrection. It was fueled by organized groups who took up their positions even before the big enchilada started to address the crowd. The plan all along was to be ready to go as soon as the unwitting pawns started to reach the Capitol with their anger stoked by the speakers and T-man himself. Had the plan to delay the election certification not failed, I do not even wish to think of where we might be today.

Book Review: Something to Hide by Elisabeth George

 

Elizabeth George’s Something to Hide comes in at almost 700 pages and literally weighs over two pounds. (I put it on a scale.)  

She takes a full 100 pages to lay out four apparently separate background threads. There is a shadowy female health clinic that may or may not be involved with participating in female genital mutilation or fighting against it. There is another family with sexual and relationship issues that spring from their valiant efforts to minister to the needs of their severely handicapped daughter. There is a Nigerian family with a creepy violence prone bigamous father, a sneaky mother, an eight year old daughter, who for somewhat different reasons the parents would like to have “cut” in order to insure that she will make a good wife, and a modern son with a modern girl friend who are having none of any of it. Around the edges also is a police investigation targeting the shadowy clinic.  

Finally, a black female detective who is connected to that clinic, goes into a coma and dies. The autopsy reveals that she has been a murder victim and only then do we get a sense that this is a "Lynley" novel.  Acting Inspector Lynley, Barbara Havers, and Winston Ncata enter the story as the investigating officers. For the next six hundred pages you creep through the investigation with them and, as is normal in this kind of novel, while they find the linkages that draw the complicated plot together.  More disconcerting is that the already multi-layered story is not helped by the side trips into Lynley’s own new love interest and Barbara Havers lack of any love interest.

I wish I could recommend this book, because the central theme of the heinous practice of genital mutilation of young girls begs for more attention. Unfortunately, the slow start hangs on into the rest of the book.  It just seems to move at a glacial pace. I sometimes wonder why perfectly good successful writers feel the need to enter the “Who can write the longest book?” competition against heavyweights like Melville and Dostoyevsky. Ms. George tries, but she loses this time.