Postcard from London: What fools these mortals be

I’m thinking the guy in the picture wouldn’t be happy at all with I saw this week.

Is anything not sacred? I’m not suggesting the Shakespeare Globe Theater along the River Thames hold real-life suicides of Brutus falling on his sword or Juliet stabbing herself with Romeo’s dagger (although wouldn’t that make for a good postcard?), but can we scale back on the commercialism of ol’ Billy’s name and likeness? The place is more department store than any homage to the playwright.

After all, what says William Shakespeare more than a mug and T-shirt package? I imagine the acting is quite good and the open-air stage is famous for its design, a reconstruction of that which first held plays in 1599.

But you have to think Will would take one look around today and offer this assessment: “What light through yonder window breaks? Alas, it is Starbucks." 

(Ed Graney is covering the Olympics in London for the Las Vegas Review-Journal. Follow him on Twitter: @edgraney. More Olympics coverage can be found at lvrj.com/olympics.)