A LONG-OVERDUE ENCORE

By Barry Hillenbrand/London

The opening lines of Henry V have a seductive charm. Using the humble voice of the narrator, the playwright cajoles the audience to suspend disbelief. It's a bit much to ask, he admits, but might we transform "this unworthy scaffold" of the stage into the "vasty fields of France? or may we cram/Within this wooden O the very casques/That did affright the air at Agincourt?" For nearly four centuries, audiences have readily joined in this theatrical pretense. After all, who can refuse Shakespeare a favor?

When those famous lines were spoken last week at the opening of a new London production of Henry V, they were more irresistible--and relevant--than ever. For they were delivered from the stage of London's new Globe theater, a remarkable replica of Shakespeare's original "wooden O." Located on the south bank of the Thames only a tuppence's throw from the site of the original, the new Globe is relentlessly authentic, from its brick plinth foundation and English oak beams right up to its thatched roof, which opens to the sky, and maybe the rain, in the center. But the Globe is more than just the ultimate theme park for Shakespeare fanatics. It is also the arena for a fresh and fascinating style of Shakespeare performance.

Much to the chagrin of some tradition-minded Brits, the Globe owes its existence to an American actor blacklisted during the McCarthy era. When Sam Wanamaker arrived in London in 1949, he was shocked to discover that the only acknowledgment of the original Globe was a plaque affixed to the front of a brewery. Wanamaker began a long and arduous campaign to build a modern equivalent. When he had finally squeezed enough cash from corporations and individual benefactors ($20.5 million), Wanamaker and his building team had to struggle to come up with the right design.

Few details about the original Globe survive. The extant building contracts for the Rose and the Fortune, neighboring rival theaters built by Peter Streete, the master carpenter who constructed the old Globe, were studied for guidance. The most basic questions were troublesome. A group of academics was convened in 1992 to settle the controversy over how many sides the polygon structure should have. The scholars voted--14 to 6--for 20 sides.

Workmen used traditional methods and materials. "I am proud that the general way we constructed the whole structure is entirely consistent with the practices of 1595," says Peter McCurdy, the meticulous master carpenter who directed the construction project. Still, some compromises had to be made. For example, goat hair had to be used to give body to the plaster because no cow hair of the proper--and authentic--length could be found.

Wanamaker died in 1993, too soon to see the culmination of his grand crusade. He would not have been surprised that the Globe's Henry V and The Winter's Tale reveal a brand of Shakespeare different from what is offered in the darkened theaters of the modern world. Because the 1,000 seats curve around the stage, everyone in the audience sees the action from a different angle. Often the view is blocked by pillars, but the sense of intimacy makes up for any obstructions. No audience member is farther than 50 ft. from the stage. The 450 groundlings standing in the yard often rest their arms on the stage's edge. "I was so close I felt I was part of the action," says Katie Marshall, 21, a student at the University of California at Davis, who stood during a performance of The Winter's Tale. As they did in Elizabethan times, audience members tend to join in the proceedings. When a French officer in Henry V suggests that "England shall couch down in fear and yield," an English patriot in the audience shouted back, "Never!"

Still, Shakespeare at the Globe is not for everyone. Purists are annoyed by the distractions during performances: small children who sometimes roam the yard; vendors who circulate selling wine and sandwiches; elderly tourists defeated by the hard seats who flee in the middle of an act. "This is nothing like the Branagh film," complained a disappointed woman from New York City after viewing Henry V. But that, of course, is exactly the point. Seeing Shakespeare at the Globe is not like seeing it anywhere else in the world.