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The latest London theatre to step up to the plate with free high-quality content is Shakespeare’s Globe. The iconic Elizabethan-style playhouse already had its own public streaming platform in the form of Globe Player, but watching it has always come at a fairly steep rate, with productions rented or purchased at individual prices that usually exceed a month’s full access to many TV streaming platforms. As of next Monday (April 6), that changes.
First up is a full English-language Shakespeare play per fortnight available for free. The line-up kicks off with 2018’s ‘Hamlet’, starring Globe boss Michelle Terry in the title role of the doomed Danish prince.
Shakespeare's Globe also plans to make available all 34 productions from its 2012 Globe to Globe series (though you’ll have to fork out to watch these). That's a Korean ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’, a Macedonian ‘Henry VI Part 3’, a Polish ‘Macbeth’, a Hebrew ‘The Merchant of Venice’ and so on and so forth. You can find the full list here.
Finally, there will be a specially made series called ‘Shakespeare & Love in Isolation’, which will see artists sharing Shakespeare’s words from self-isolation, including: Terry and her actor husband Paul Ready discussing some of their favourite works by the Bard in the podcast ‘Such Stuff’, and a celebration of Shakespeare’s birthday on April 23 with legendary former Globe boss Mark Rylance.
Here’s the full list of free-to-stream English-language plays:
‘Hamlet’ (2018), April 6-19
‘Romeo and Juliet’ (2009), April 20-May 3
‘The Two Noble Kinsmen’ (2018), May 4-17
‘The Winter’s Tale’ (2018), May 18-31
‘The Merry Wives of Windsor’ (2019), June 1-14
‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ (2013), June 15-28
You can sign up for all this on the Globe Player website.
For our round-up of theatre plays you can stream now (and soon) click here.
Don’t miss the free plays being streamed each week by London’s National Theatre.