Playing to the Globe Audience

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How does it feel to play to a Globe audience?

Maybe it is the nature of the type of performing, dancing and acting, that I have done (I started off as a dancer), but I am used to looking at the audience directly in their eye. Black theatre, on the whole, is very much call and response. Everybody talks about how in Shakespeare’s day they would throw cabbages or heckle you. Heckling is almost part of black theatre. I am used to that.

What I am not used to is the particular atmosphere that the Globe has. Because it is NOT Black theatre, there is no call and response. If you’ve got balls you could answer people back. We’ve had a couple of heckles. Tim and I just look at each other and go: ‘Did you hear that?’ (but with a look), and ‘Yes I did, and I am going to breeze straight past it and I am going to ignore it’.

On the whole the audience are really focused. When I have that fit [Act IV, scene i] and I am there on the floor, and people are leaning on the stage. They don’t move, and I turn round and I can practically kiss half of them! You’ve got to be in it, you’ve got to commit. I love it.

Have any of the audiences’ responses to Othello surprised you?

Most of the responses to Othello I didn’t anticipate.

What has been proven to me in this particular production, with this particular audience, because I know this play really well, is that the audience disagree with Brabantio.

I was always able to imagine Brabantio’s racism in the first half [Act I, Scene ii] was a sign of the times in which the play was written and back then most people would have agreed with Brabantio.

At the Globe you can hear the audience’s reaction to Brabantio’s words, it’s a visceral moment. That man starts with all that stuff, and you can hear the audience writhing against him and going: ‘un-cool!’, ‘not cool!’ and it’s not just the kids. It is a sign of the times, we’ve moved on. I am not saying racism doesn’t exist because we all know it does, but I am glad to see that we have moved on. In that special space that an audience and an actor share, in the magic arena where we can hear each other, where we can hear each other breathe, I can hear them disagreeing with what is coming out of his mouth.

And therefore they jump into the relationship of Desdemona and Othello, much quicker, much harder and commit to it more. That makes the payoff at the end when Desdemona dies much stronger. I can see the horror in people’s faces. If there is one thing I can do while I am killing Desdemona and I am looking out, I can see the horror on people’s faces and in it’s not just women, its men. People don’t know what their bodies are doing and I can see them. They are holding themselves because they are convinced that she is being hurt.

Let me tell you that every night Desdemona comes out unscarred, but I am glad it looks truly horrible.

Do you have a favourite bit in the show to perform?

I love the break up with Desdemona. If there is a bit I look forward to it is that scene [Act IV, scene ii] because of the commitment of this relationship. It is not just Othello and Desdemona, This is two people in a serious break up.

At the end of the ‘whore’ scene, which is the break up, Othello says: ‘We have done our course’.(4.2.94) At this point, once he goes there, he may rant and rave, but once he says the two simple words ‘we’ve done’, it’s over.

Looking in that girl’s [Zoe Tapper’s] eyes every night, I mean I have to be really careful. She will soften you with a look. I am like, ‘No! I have to get to the end of the play, if I soften now…’ She is so wonderful, she looks at you like: ‘What are you doing? What have I done?’ I have to fight that within myself as the actor and as Othello.

Every night without fail I don’t want to kill her.

Blog with Eamonn

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