People

By Sara C. Medina

To be or not to be? That was the question, whether American Actor-Director < Sam Wanamaker (Raw Deal) was going to realize his 30-year-old dream of rebuilding Shakespeare's Globe Theater. That hallowed arena on the south bank of the Thames probably held the first productions of King Lear and Macbeth before it burned to the ground in 1613. Wanamaker first visited the site in 1949, found only a brass plaque on a wall beside the debris-strewn riverbank and felt, "well, outrage." Over the years he and his Shakespeare Globe Trust faced the slings and arrows of competition from other restoration drives and a local borough council more interested in low-income housing (its deputy leader called the Bard "a lot of tosh"). After the council pulled out of a 1981 deal with a development company that would have guaranteed the site ("political vandalism," in Wanamaker's view), the Trust sued. Late last month the sea of troubles finally ended in an out-of-court settlement and a go-ahead for the re-creation of the round, handcrafted oak theater. All's well that ends well.