Some comebacks happen fast. Others take centuries. The story of Shakespeare’s Globe in London includes both, and it is a reminder that what is lost can sometimes be rebuilt, often with hard lessons built into the new version.
A theater built from another theater
The Globe itself was born from a setback. Shakespeare’s acting company had performed at a playhouse called the Theatre, north of the city, but a dispute over the lease on its land put its future in doubt. Over the winter of 1598 to 1599, the company took the building apart and moved its timbers across the River Thames to Bankside, where they used them to build a new playhouse. The Globe opened in 1599 and became the home of many of Shakespeare’s greatest plays.
The afternoon the Globe burned
On June 29, 1613, during a performance of Shakespeare’s Henry VIII, a small cannon was fired as a stage effect. Sparks landed in the thatched roof. The audience, absorbed in the play, paid little attention at first. Within about an hour, the wooden theater had burned to the ground.
Remarkably, accounts from the time report that no one was killed. One describes a man whose clothes caught fire and were put out with a bottle of ale.
Rebuilt in a year, with a better roof
The company did not wait long. The Globe was rebuilt on the same site and reopened in 1614. This time it had a tiled roof instead of thatch. The new theater carried on the work of the old one, and it carried a lesson from the disaster too.
That second Globe operated for nearly three decades, until authorities closed London’s theaters in 1642 amid the turmoil of the English Civil War. A few years later the building was pulled down, and the site was used for housing.
Gone, then imagined again
For more than three centuries, the Globe lived only in history books and in the plays themselves. Then the American actor and director Sam Wanamaker set out to rebuild it near its original location. He spent years campaigning and raising money, pushing through skepticism, setbacks and delays. He died in 1993, before the project was finished.
The reconstructed Shakespeare’s Globe opened in 1997, built with traditional methods and materials where possible, including a thatched roof, along with modern fire protection. The idea outlived its champion and still crossed the finish line.
What the Globe teaches about coming back
- Rebuild, and improve. The second Globe got a safer roof. A comeback is a chance to fix what failed the first time.
- Use what you have. The first Globe rose from the timbers of an old theater. Pieces of a past chapter can frame a new one.
- Some comebacks outlast one person. Wanamaker never saw the finished theater, but his persistence made it possible for everyone who came after.
A summer evening at an outdoor Shakespeare performance, wherever you live, is a fine time to remember that even a building reduced to ashes can rise again.
New messages, real moments from the road, and the All Is Well Project. Follow along and say hello.
The lessons behind everything Chris teaches. Start with three chapters, free.
Turn the lessons into your comeback.
Talk it through free with the Team Dorrity coach, or work with Chris one-on-one in The Better Than Back Experience.
