U.S. actor wins Globe battle

Press, 2 July 1986, Page 46

U.S. actor wins Globe battle

NZPA-Reuter London An American actor and director, Sam Wanamaker, has won a 17-year battle to rebuild William Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre on its original London site.

The end of the legal wrangle came in an out-of-court settlement of an action brought by Wanamaker’s Shakespeare Globe Trust against the Left-wing London borough of Southwark, which had opposed the project. The plan had been Wanamaker’s dream since 1969 when he began the battle to build the replica theatre on the south bank of the River Thames, opposite St Paul’s Cathedral.

After the settlement Wanamaker said: “I feel

delighted, jubilant and in a sense vindicated. I think it will become one of the most important cultural and entertainment institutions that this country has.”

He hoped to reopen the Globe with the play which was presented at the original theatre’s opening night in 1599 — Shakespeare’s "Henry the V.” He said work would start as soon as possible on the theatre which will have 1000 seats and space for a further 500 promenaders. The Globe, in which Shakespeare had a big stake, was closed in 1642 by order of Oliver Cromwell whose puritan edicts banned all aspects of public entertainment.