A lot can change in a decade. Back in 2002 it’s fair to say that the Royals were at something of a low ebb: the Queen Mum had passed away and the interview process for their next National Treasure™ (a.k.a. Kate Middleton) had only just begun. The shiny, new, and optimistic Euro was in the process of being rolled out across Europe. And I was a bright-eyed undergraduate for whom footnotes had not yet lost their lustre.

Back in 2002 I went on a college trip to The Globe. It was my first visit, as it happens, and I soaked up the atmosphere. Literally. It poured and we groundlings hugged the stage and seating perimeter like barnacles to the hull of a ship. Anyway, the play was Twelfth Night and it was an authentically Shakespearean all-male cast. Ten years on and I jumped at a friend’s offer of a ticket to Twelfth Night, again at The Globe. I only discovered a day or two before that the line up included Mark Rylance and Stephen Fry . It all boded very well.

When I arrived and realised that it was a revival of the 2002 production, one image returned to my mind: the almost unnerving smoothness of Rylance’s stately progress around the stage. Playing Olivia and wearing a very regal gown, you would have been forgiven for thinking that we was operating on well-oiled casters the way he swept around. I was pleased to see that this acting decision of exaggerated grace hadn’t been dropped, and the caster-walk was as effectively funny as ever. All in all I enjoyed myself immensely, in essentials nothing had changed; The Globe had a magnificent atmosphere. The only thing that had changed was for the better: I now had a seat with a great view.

Lesley-Anne Crooks, Sales & Digital Manager