Walking up through the Sidney Myer Music Bowl in the darkness of the evening, you can spy a chain of bright lights through the trees. By the time you have found out what they are, you have been completely blown over by the sight of the Pop Up Globe standing high on the hill like a beautiful fair maiden from old London! I think I may have even gasped!

The venue is a feat of engineering, all coming together after a pop up story at bedtime and an inquisitive child in New Zealand asking daddy how they could visit the Globe Theatre themselves. Imagine your father making THAT happen!!! Hats off to the insanely brave and awesome Miles Gregory, who believed he could, so he did!

Last week we went to a performance of As You Like It, and boy did we like it! Walking into the Pop Up Globe sends a shiver down the spine of even the most hardy of men. A replica Jacobean Theatre built with mostly scaffolding in the middle of Melbourne, and you are almost thrown into 1614, and looking for a wench to serve you some mead.

We were seated in amongst the scaffolding, on a rather comfy cushion, directly in front of the stage. As soon as the music began I was right there, hanging on every word.

The actors made the story come alive, made it real; they made us laugh… properly laugh.  They took us right back to Shakespearean times, with some clever modern adaptions for everyone to enjoy. The sword fights, the love trysts, the dancing and the music, all performed in THE space it was made for.

With a talented cast of all male, all rounders, it was a night to remember. Michael Mahony as Touchstone was faultless, as was the rest of the cast. Having spent most of my English Lit classes being miserably confused, I am really excited that we have this wonderful theatre to take us right back, and engage us in the way Shakespeare wanted.

The Pop Up Globe is in Melbourne now until the 12th November.

‘I like this place and willingly could waste my time in it’ – As You Like It – Shakespeare