Shakespeare's Globe Theatre

It all started out in Leo’s photo album where I spotted a comment from one of my former journalism junior, Clara. It turns out that both of them are mutual friends with each other at NUS. From there, I got to know from Clara that my former JC English Lit lecturer, Miss Kwok is making a trip down to London in June. Arrangements were made on when to meet and it was decided also that we would catch a show at the Shakespeare Globe Theatre. I took a bus down as it is a cheaper option and would plan to return back by bus too. This meant only a mere 13 pounds for a 1 day London return trip. Once I’ve reached Victoria station, I met up with Clara and we went to find Miss Kwok. Along the way, I received news that we’ll meeting a fieldtrip group from my JC and that another one of my former lecturers would be there too. Woah, during my time, the only fieldtrip that we heard of was to Vietnam and now the kids get to fly to England.

As a uni student now, I suddenly felt quite old looking at the JC kids in the group. 3 years ago, I was at their stage. We hang around the group for a while before moving off to our own directions. We proceeded on to have lunch at one of the Spanish BBQ stalls near the Thames River. We had 2 bowls of paella shared among ourselves. After lunch, we took a slow walk to the Globe Theatre. I’ve heard of the Globe Theatre (from playing Civilization games) but never seen it personally myself. Apparently this famous Globe Theatre in London is merely a reconstruction of the model that Shakespeare had during his time. Clara booked for us standing tickets for “All’s well that ends well” and it costs just a measly 5 pounds! That’s really a value deal for a unique experience of a lifetime. Wow..apparently the more expensive tickets are the seated ones but the irony is that the standing area is the actually the better experience. This is because the standing audience get to be as close to the actors as possible and we get to have an experience how an open-sky theatre feels like.

The Globe Theatre management were strict on camera policies – no video taking or cameras during performance time. During the performance, I could see that Shakespeare plays were the medieval cinemas of his time. It was like watching a film, except that very old English was used and live music were played. There was a slight drizzle at the interval but thank God there’s no heavy rainfall. Anyways, it was a very good show and kudos to the actors for bringing out the comedic effects of the character.

After the show we had some ice-cream before sending Clara off to the tube station since her bus is coming earlier. I accompanied Miss Kwok along the Thames River for a short walk before heading off to Victoria Bus Station myself. It was great catching up with some of the old people from my previous stage of life and I certainly never expect us to meet up in a foreign land – of all places..lol. The irony is that we probably wouldn’t be able to find the occasion to meet up at Singapore itself. Nevertheless, Miss Kwok pointed out that it’s always nice to share moments of exploring a new place with her students. In any case, Miss Kwok herself has always been one of the lecturers that I personally respect because of her passion and dedication in teaching English Literature. Even after years later, I still find her passion for teaching English Lit is burning as strong as ever and I’m indeed thankful to be able to learn under her during my time in JC.