The Silvano Toti Globe Theatre — to give its full title — opened in October to celebrate the park's 100th anniversary.

Costing 2.4 million, the theater is an homage to Shakespeare, who never visited Italy but set 15 of his 37 plays there.

The replica Globe design offered inexpensive theatre, and closeness to the actors.

Ordinarily intending to offer more serious fare, on Sundays, the city sponsors free family fare, such as the Italian adaptation of Peter Pan, which drew a crowd of parents, children and dogs, making it "the" place to be on Sundays.

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THEATER
ROME GETS AN OLDEN GLOBE

Shakespeare's famous open-air venue is replicated again,
this time 'for the people' in Italy's Borghese Park.

The Los Angeles Times
By Michael J. Ybarra
Special to The Times
December 17 2003

ROME -- An alligator in a tuxedo is dancing across a stage singing in Italian. A pirate flourishes a sword. A girl falls to the stage, poisoned. Peter Pan bounds to her side.

"Wendy," he exclaims, "como stai?"

Shakespeare it is not, but the Bard would probably recognize the venue — a faithful copy of England's famous Globe Theatre, set amid the lushness of Rome's beguiling Borghese Park. Actually, the theater is a replica of a replica, but a copy by any other name….

The Silvano Toti Globe Theatre — to give its full title — opened in October to celebrate the park's 100th anniversary.

"The mayor wanted to do something special for the city," says Giuseppe Viggiano, the project manager who oversaw the building of the theater, which cost about $2.4 million. "He wanted a theater for the people."

The park itself is one of Rome's jewels, crowning the hill above the Spanish Steps. The park started as a private playground of the Borghese family in the 17th century (this was the clan that produced Pope Paul V, whose idea of an interior decorator was Michelangelo). Eventually the family hit hard times and the exquisite Villa Borghese (stuffed with Berninis and Caravaggios) became a museum while the surrounding gardens became one of the world's great urban parks.

As the park's centennial approached this year, actor-director Gigi Proietti suggested to Rome's Mayor, Walter Veltroni, that it might be a nice idea to build a showcase for public theater in the city's most public garden. Veltroni, who was previously the country's minister of culture, jumped on the idea.

"This Globe Theatre is a gem of architecture, a new treasure that is both old and modern, to add to the many beauties of the Villa Borghese," Veltroni announced on opening night. "Rome is proud to have a Shakespearean theater." The project was financed by the Silvano Toti Foundation, named for the late builder and arts patron.

But why an Elizabethan theater in an Italian park?

In part, the theater is an homage to Shakespeare, who never visited Italy but set 15 of his 37 plays here. And Shakespeare still draws crowds. Tourists by the busloads, for example, visit a balcony in an alley in Verona that locals claim is the locale for the most celebrated scene in "Romeo and Juliet." The Globe Theatre in London draws 700,000 visitors a year.

The original Globe opened in 1599 but burned down 14 years later. The theater was rebuilt, then closed in 1642. It was later torn down. Shakespeare devotees spent a decade painstakingly erecting a copy (some of which was guesswork since the blueprints were long lost) along the south bank of the River Thames, which opened in 1997.

The Italian team studied the plans for the Globe on the Internet, made a few modifications for local building codes and a couple of months later a virtual replica of the original replica was rising in the park.

"It is the first new building in the Borghese gardens in centuries," Viggiano says. "Shakespeare picked the Globe because it represented the courtyard where people used to meet. We wanted a theater for everyone. Usually theater is expensive. We wanted just the essentials, a place where people are close to the actors."

The open-air theater is made of oak and seats 1,300.

On Sundays, the city sponsors free family fare, such as the Italian adaptation of Peter Pan, which drew a crowd of parents, children and dogs.

"On Sundays it is becoming a place to be," Viggiano says.

But the theater is also a home for more serious offerings as well.

The October opening featured "Romeo and Juliet," directed by Proietti. In Italian. With a techno soundtrack.

The theater's season will normally run from early spring to late fall, longer than the London Globe's since it rains less in Rome (although the run of "Romeo and Juliet" was cut short by a sudden change in the weather).

"It started to get cold and rainy," Viggiano says. "It was a bad month. Almost like London weather."

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