Theatre scholar's blueprint brought Shakespeare's Globe back to life

There is a moment in the life of Dr. John Orrell that is the stuff of legends - the kind of epiphany many scholars only dream about.

In the early 1980s, the English professor climbed the tower of Southwark Cathedral in London, England, with a drawing of the city's panorama etched at that very spot by one Wenceslas Hollaris in 1644. Orrell also had in hand a modern Ordnance Survey map, showing the 17th century buildings that still stand. He laid the survey map over the drawing and, much to his amazement, they lined up so accurately he concluded Hollaris could only have produced the drawing with the help of a perspective glass.

That meant the drawing's dimensions of the Globe Theatre, William Shakespeare's first playhouse, were correct. And although Hollaris' drawing showed a restored Globe after the original structure burned down in 1613, it was the best evidence for the dimensions of the theatre, which housed the first productions of the Bard's great dramatic works.

The result was a study that became, quite literally, ground-breaking. Orrell's Quest for the Globe, published in 1983, provided the blueprint for a new, historically accurate playhouse. The original foundation was eventually uncovered in 1989, re-construction began in 1992 and in 1997 the Globe re-opened after almost 350 years with a production of Henry V, which refers to the structure itself as "this cockpit" and "this wooden O" in its prologue.. Orrell acted as principal consultant every step of the way.

"Anyone who visits the reconstructed Globe Playhouse on the south bank of London today experiences the physical proportions of that place largely as researched and envisioned by John," says U of A colleague Dr. Rick Bowers.

Orrell, one of the university's most luminous figures of literary studies, died Sept. 16 at the age of 68. Born in Maidstone, Kent, he spent most of his working life in Canada, 35 years as professor of English at the University of Alberta.

He was, says long-time colleague Dr. Juliet McMaster, "the very model of a Renaissance man in the breadth of his talents and interests." The research that made him the "single major authority on Elizabethan and Jacobean theatre design" required "expertise in architecture, mathematics, drafting and carpentry, as well as a historical knowledge of those disciplines in early modern times," she says.

Andrew Gurr, who collaborated with Orrell on Rebuilding Shakespeare's Globe (1989), says that "while the Globe's design was evolving, (Orrell) could argue in their own language with the architect Theo Crosby, the master carpenter Peter McCurdy, as well as with archaeologists and engineers as readily as he argued the case for using Hollaris in the Quest book. Artist and playwright before he was a scholar, he had an intense love of practical things, gardens and their design as well as buildings, especially when the design was brought to life in the theatre."

Early in his career, Orrell also wrote a book on Edmonton play and opera houses, researched a dictionary of Western Canadian words and expressions, and produced radio and television documentaries on Western Canada. He also wrote poems, plays, short stories and screenplays.

He was known around the English Department as much for the slide rule he carried in his pocket as for his agile wit; he once remarked after hearing a lecture by a renowned if over-rated visiting scholar, "What oft was thought, but frequently better expressed."

"Everything he did was so dignified and professional," said Bowers. "To me as a young academic trained in Elizabethan drama, coming to the U of A English department in 1987 meant coming to the department where John Orrell taught. When he retired, they moved me into his office. I still think of the place as John's office and I think of him often these days."

Orrell is survived by his wife Wendy, son David, daughter Catherine and grandson Benjamin. A memorial endowment fund will be established in his name and a service will be held Oct. 26, 7 p.m. at the Timms Centre for the Arts.