I have never been to the Globe despite living in London my whole life. When I was revising for my A Levels, my friend's mum was tutoring me and upon discovering I'd never been, told me to go watch Shakespeare in Love and eat ice cream, and that was as close as I'd ever got to The Globe.


The Globe is currently running its Edges of Rome season, which includes Titus Andronicus. This is one of my favourite Will plays, I read it in a day including in the middle of a GTV meeting and was so ingrossed that at one point I had to stop reading in the hope that events wouldn't unfold as I knew they would. It didn't work and they did, so when Val organised a trip to see Titus at the Globe, I was always going to say yes.

On Thursday I was messing about on my brand new shiny computer when I got a text from Corinne summoning me to Covent Garden to meet them. When I eventually got into town, I discovered them in Neal Street, with their sunglasses on attempting to spot celebrities. A while after that and we were wandering across the Millenium Bridge debating the merits of how Cat can properly compare it to the one in Newcastle.

Cat and I decided we would be groundlings for the first half and it was an absolutely amazing experience. The director made full use of the yard, so much so at times you were struggling to move back in order to get your foot out of the way of the scaffolding on wheels. You just felt you were right in the middle of the action and I was completely immersed it in all, so much so I only thought once about what would happen if it rained.
Thankfully it didn't, even in the second half when Cat and I took over the seats. I found more distractions sitting down since my eyeline to the stage took in all the groundlings and I found it particularly amusing when people tried to sit down as it's not actually allowed in the yard, but I don't think I could have stood for the whole production. I absolutely loved the production and how they chose to portray it all, particularly horrific but at the same time humourous because all you can do is laugh, and have now decided I need to see Coriolanus and Antony and Cleopatra as well. Not least because seeing at least two out of three means it is acceptable to purchase a season poster from the giftshop; with that in mind, Corinne and I now have Montague and Capulet badges and I am still complaining that their hoodies were white.

The celebrity spotting continued into the Greek restaurant where Corinne became convinced that she recognised the woman sat on the table outside and her animated gesturing the whole time convinced me she must be an actress. Through the wonders of google, Corinne finally figured out it was Frances Barber. Hey, it counts as a spotted.

Continuing 'Corinne's Literary Tour', the next day we found ourselves in Bloomsbury on a treasure hunt for blue plaques and wondering why there was no shop selling Ginny tat.


Plus, you know what, if Ginny had lived longer, she'd have been able to live right by the BT Tower...