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The Shakespeare’s Globe outdoor summer season is currently in full swing and is running right up until the end of October.
But time marches on and so does theatre programming and today (July 10) the Globe has announced its winter programme of shows at its intimate candlelit indoor theatre, the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse.
So what’s on the programme? Would it blow your mind to hear that there are several plays by William Shakespeare involved? In fact the Wanamaker steered clear of The Bard in its early days, but now it’s long got past the pedantic period quibbles that used to keep him outdoors only.
The season will begin with ‘All’s Well That Ends Well’ (Nov 8-Jan 4). Generally something of a rarity in performance terms – it’s possibly the only Shakespeare play better known as a cheery aphorism than an actual work of drama – the Bard’s weirdy late works are well suited to the Wanamaker and you only have to go back to 2018 to find the last production (though that generally wasn’t viewed as very good). Chelsea Walker will direct one of his strangest plays, a thriller about Helen, a woman brutally rebuffed in love.
Early next year, Jennifer Tang will direct another of Shakespeare’s so-called ‘problem plays’, the tragicomic pastoral ‘Cymbeline’ (Jan 10-Apr 20), last seen at the Globe in an aggressively modern raved up version called ‘Imogen’ back in 2016 (and in a more trad Wanamaker production the year before that). For a final dose of the Bard, a 90-minute version of ‘Macbeth’ aimed at school kids will run outdoor from March 6 next year.
In other playwright news, there will be a second chance to see Simon Armitage’s take on ‘Hansel and Gretel’ (Nov 29-Jan 5) as the Globe’s de facto Christmas show – it ran in the same slot last year but much of the run was cancelled due to illness.
Finally a Globe debut for a certain Anton Chekhov – the Russian titan’s wistful masterpiece ‘Three Sisters’ (Jan 31-Apr 19) will run in a new production adapted by Rory Mullarkey and directed by Caroline Steinbeis to take us into up to next year’s outdoor season.
Public booking for the new Shakespeare’s Globe indoor season opens on Wednesday July 24.
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