Globe to Globe 2012 @ Shakespeare's Globe

The Globe to Globe festival showcases 37 Shakespearean plays in 37 languages. I saw two of them, the Cantonese Titus Andronicus and the Hip-hop Othello. It's the first time I saw a performance at the Globe, and although it's not the 'original' Globe Theatre, it's still quite an experience!

The Cantonese one was much better in my opinion, and I guess it has to do with our 'location' and the language. We were at the yard, so we were really close to the stage (second 'row' if you can call it that), and though I had to stand for 2 hours for the performance, I think it's totally worth it. The performing group was from HK, and it's really good. A friend of mine told me that the same play's staged in HK previously, but I bet you can't get tickets closest to the stage at 5 quid? ;)

One interesting thing is that there were quite a lot of Westerners at the performance. I can understand those who went with Cantonese-speaking friends and family, but quite a lot were on their own. I don't think they understood anything, as there were only very brief scene descriptions throughout the play. :(

Had never seen a Tang Shu-wing Theatres Studio performance before, but this one's really good! Will keep my eyes peeled for future performances when I'm in HK! 

The stage

Ooops, a bit blurry but the pic shows the galleries at the Globe 

A really good performance! 

The Hip-hop one, to be honest, was a bit disappointing. Of course the fact that it's heavily adapted and in hip-hop means that it's quite a far cry from the original Othello, but I was still disappointed. My friend and I were sitting at the upper gallery (we got tickets too late...) and were really far away from the stage, therefore making it quite hard to hear exactly what's being 'sung' / rapped.