Bookish London

Chapter 15 - Liz

We step into the theatre and Kyle goes to join the next guided tour about to start. I stop him.
“What- What are you doing?! We’re going to miss it!” Kyle exclaims, confused.
“I have aces up my sleeves, right Carter?”
I ask him, not wanting a reply.
Indeed, at that moment a woman approached us, my friend Victoria Delfine Marshall, known to me as Vic.
Well, woman…she’s only a few years older than me and she helped me through some bad stuff in middle school, including Kyle’s tormenting…but no more about that.
“Lizzy!? How have you been? You surprised me with your call…and this is?” She says, hugging me, then turning to Kyle.
“You might remember him from my time in middle school, Vic. This is Kyle Carter. Kyle, this is Victoria Marshall, my dear friend and psychologist at times, she’s a guide and expert here at the Globe” I announce.
“Pleasure to meet you.” He says, going to take her hand and kiss it like in the old times, but I slap his hand away.
That would be rude and so very forward of him, not counting weirdly gentleman-like and embarrassing.
But most of all, out of place.
Introductions done; we follow Victoria as she gives us a brief -- but extensive knowledge-wise – tour of the theatre.
“As it is one of the most iconic theatres in London, this theatre, which opened in 1997, is a reconstruction of the original Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre, built in 1599.” Victoria explains, and I listen to her most admiringly.
You can never have me bored if we’re talking about Shakespeare or theatre in general.
That also includes art and its various expressions: books, paintings, sculptures…
“Plays are on all through summer, offering a unique insight into the intimate side of performance in a space Shakespeare himself would hopefully recognise.” Victoria goes on, and I get more and more drawn to this place, even more than before.
“The first Globe theatre famously burned down in 1613. During the production of Shakespeare’s play Henry VIII, lining from a stage canon lit the slate roof and the theatre itself burnt to the ground in 2 hours. Fortunately, no people were injured or fell victim of this disastrous fire.” Victoria continues, and even though I’ve known this story since I was a little girl, I eat it up as if it were the first time…and it looks like someone else feels the same way about it, because Kyle has never stopped gazing at her with awe, not wasting a second to take everything in like a wave of knowledge, washing over him…I’ve never seen him so entranced by something…I’m genuinely surprised.
I might regret thinking this in the next five minutes, but I am truly starting to like how he is, his ways, and his smile…Shut up brain, that was too far off point!
As I predicted, Kyle’s next interjections is the most insanely stupid yet funny thing ever.
“So, the theatre literally went «Kaboom», right?” he asks.
I am seconds away from slapping his face off for embarrassing me in front of my friend like this, not counting the other people listening to the tours and the visitors following their own route throughout the building, when Victoria answers him in a way that surprises me in such way, to stun me speechless.
“It was a blast, yes. But there is no such word as Kaboom, at least not in Shakespeare’s times, therefore anyone speaking such unusual word would have been considered some kind of madman…that doesn’t suit a pretty face like yours, now, does it?”
She says, smiling in that wicked way she does when she successfully walks over someone with her knowledge and intelligence.
Brilliant Victoria for the win. Gosh, I love her so.
Kyle remains speechless for a while, whilst I hardly can contain my victorious laugh, scolded by a firm look from Victoria herself.
She has no intention of making a scene at her own workplace, natural.
We move on, and she gets back on track with our tour like nothing ever happened. She’s an utter queen, that girl.
“Opposite The Rose theatre, you’ll find the site of the original Globe Theatre. Only a small amount of the theatre has been dug out; the rest lies beneath a Georgian building and Southwark Bridge.”
“We went there earlier today” mumbles a still-stunned Kyle, trailing slowly behind us.
“Oh, well then you know what I’m talking about, then!”
Victoria exclaims cheerfully, a broad grin making its way all over her face.
We move toward what appears to be, as to what I recall from my visit here two years ago, the last stop of our tour.
“For the last stop of our mini tour, I have a story to tell. So here it goes...In 1949 an American actor called Sam Wanamaker came to London. He wanted to see the location of The Globe Theatre, but he was disappointed in discovering that the only thing to mark the site where the Globe had once stood was a simple plaque. Therefore, later on, in 1970, Sam set up the Shakespeare’s Globe Trust, with the purpose of actively pursuing his dream of building a reconstruction of the original Globe Theatre, in the same place of or near its original one. It took him 23 years to find land, get the right planning permission and raise the money for the work. Sadly, the poor man never saw his vision become complete. He died in 1993, while the building was still under construction. But we shall always be grateful to Sam because it is thanks to him that we have The Globe Theatre today and The Globe’s new indoor theatre, is named in his honour the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse.”
She ends her story with a silent sigh of both relief for ending this tour, and respect for Sam and his work.
“The tour is finished, my work is done, now go home, my dear friends.”
Victoria concludes, doing a little bow in front of us, as we jokingly applaud her as we would any actor after a play.
We say our goodbyes to Victoria and leave the theatre, walking out into the sunset, as we head to the city centre.
“What say you, my dear furrowed-browed friend?” I ask him, as a joke.
“You surprised me, Cuthbert. Truly. I cannot deny that this was a stunning, well-planned day out in the city. But what do we bring of this onto our assignment?” he questions.
“Our emotions, Carter. What we felt, and through that we explain what we did in a presentation. Simple.” I answer.
“Of course, you had already thought about it, didn’t you?” he asks.
“Always one step ahead of your partner – or enemy for that matter.”
I conclude, and we walk on in relaxed conversation.