We Spaniards celebrate 2016 as the year of Cervantes and the British do the same withShakespeare , given that both writers died on the same day, May 3, 1616 (actually the second was on April 23, according to the Julian calendar then in force in England, but it does not matter for the subject at hand).
The fact is that the writer from Strafford-upon-Avon forms a couple with the one from Alcalá at the top of universal literature and has made us laugh, cry, tremble, vibrate, get excited and applaud with his splendid theatrical production , from which classic titles of tragedy such as Hamlet, MacBeth, King Lear, Julius Caesar, Romeo and Juliet stand out. u Othello , from comedy such as The Merchant of Venice, A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Tempest or The Taming of the Shrew , and of a historical nature such as Enrique V or Richard III , among many others.
The figure of Shakespeare is closely linked to the Globe Theatre because the theatrical company Lord Chamberlain’s Men usually performed there , of which the writer was a part. However, this company took its first steps in another forum:the Curtain Theatre , which despite the appropriateness of the name, was not so called because it had a curtain but because of the place where it was located, Curtain Close (in the current London neighborhood of Hackney) and which opened its doors in 1577.
In The Curtain Theatre it was where Shakespeare premiered Romeo and Juliet (1597) and Enrique V (1599), the latter work in which the theater itself is mentioned. Then the Lord Chamberlain's Men they moved to The Globe Leaving your site to other companies. But the story of the Curtain did not end there, of course. And it wasn't always an artistic story, because it also served as a setting for something much more mundane like a duel :in 1598 the playwright and poet Ben Jonson killed actor Gabriel Spencer in one in neighboring Hogsden Fields. Jonson narrowly escaped the gallows, but the theater was forever linked to that incident.
Performances continued until 1622, and from 1627 the Curtain is not heard of again beyond the current plaque indicating its location. At least that was the case until 2012, when it was announced that a team of archaeologists from MOLA (Museum of London Archeology) had found parts of the building in the Shoreditch neighborhood during some ad hoc excavations :specifically the patio and some brick walls They measure up to a meter and a half in height. The result of this work has been the discovery that the theater did not have a rectangular shape, as was believed, but octagonal .
During the work, various pieces and objects have been brought to light, such as abone comb which was probably used by an actor and, most surprisingly, a kind of ceramic whistle which experts believe was used to create sound effects; specifically, the whistle of the birds to which, for example, the protagonists of Romeo and Juliet allude in the fifth scene of the third act.
It would be interesting to find out what other special effects They used Shakespearean theatrical productions and perhaps we will know it in a while, because the excavation work will continue. Meanwhile, in parallel and following fashion, the MOLA opens access to the site to the public (Fridays until June 24) and exhibits what has already been found in an improvised cultural center on-site .