A Possible Ghost Story at the Actual Globe.
Cooooooeeeeeee.
So this is an exciting bit of fun time good news.
I’m doing a new thing for two nights at The Globe Theatre in London on the 26th and 27th of October.
A few months ago, when I was booking the outdoor shows for the summer, my friend Will said he had a “contact” at The Globe Theatre. I, promptly swore at him and called him a stupid liar. Then, I went about my day, secure in the knowledge that Will was a stupid liar telling stupid lies and that even if he wasn’t there was no way The actual Globe would want a bald, middle aged man in varifocals, waddling about their glorious *stage, bellowing profanities into their historically significant** auditorium.
Anyway, it turns out that not only was Will telling the truth but also, The actual Globe seemed miraculously amenable to the aforementioned cheapening of what is, lets be honest, a pretty unique and magical*** theatre.
The dates they had available, however, were at the end of October which felt too late in the year to tag on to the Outside tour and besides the nature of the place made me want to write something new, not only that but also, the dates were tantalisingly close to Halloween and I had an idea.
So here’s the official blurb:
Maybe a Ghost Story.
By Daniel Kitson.
I don’t believe in Ghosts and I’ve never been comfortable with (or really, any good at) frightening people.
One Halloween, forty years ago, me, my mum and my brother turned off every light in the house and waited just inside the front door, for my dad to get home from work so we could frighten him. We’d made frightening lanterns from turnips and we’d learned a frightening song about witches.
But when my Dad walked in he wasn’t frightened.
He was, if anything, visibly relieved.
Apparently, having found the house in complete darkness he’d immediately been concerned as to the whereabouts and wellbeing of his family. Which meant that opening the door to find his sons waggling candle lit turnips and singing about being witches was, actually, quite close to comforting.
He said later, that he’d been worried by all the lights being off and I felt bad about that.
I still do.
A new show by Daniel Kitson written specifically for these two nights in this one place that will be funny, might be frightening and may, in spite of everything, be a ghost story.
There you go, that just about sums it up, I’ll be writing it in the next month but tickets go on sale tomorrow at 11am. If you’ve never been to The actual Globe, there’s no stalls, just uncovered standing room for around 600 people (groundlings, apparently) ensconsed by three tiers of covered seating. It’s pretty incredible. Price wise, they’ve been remarkably with standing available for a fiver and seats either 15 or 25 quid which is, frankly, a massive reduction on their normal prices, not only that but they’ve agreed to let you lot**** have priority access for two days along with their list before the shows go on general sale on Friday.
And you get that priority access from 11am tomorrow (Wednesday) at the following link.
https://basket.shakespearesglobe.com/events/30577?promo=135444
There’s no password or anything so don’t spread it around, they’ve held back some sets for general sale as well, so other people will get a fair go at things.
*- And wooden
**- Again, wooden.
***- Please see * and **
****-Valued members of the Daniel Kitson Marketplace.