Shakespeare's Globe

Blue Stockings

West End, Drama, Outdoor theatre

The first new play proper that the Globe has hosted since 2011 is this historical comedy from Jessica Swayle – better known for her work as a director – which follows the trials and tribulations of the first generation of women to attend Cambridge university....

ChildsPlay

Things to do, Families, Shakespeare

ChildsPlay sessions keep children occupied in a multimedia workshop while parents enjoy a matinee performance at Shakespeare's Globe. The sessions include craft and stories, as well as a chance to see part of the performance by joining the 'groundlings'...

ChildsPlay

Things to do, Families, Shakespeare

ChildsPlay sessions keep children occupied in a multimedia workshop while parents enjoy a matinee performance at Shakespeare's Globe. The sessions include craft and stories, as well as a chance to see part of the performance by joining the 'groundlings'...

Gabriel

West End, Experimental theatre, Baroque music (1600 – 1760), Outdoor theatre

• Critics' choice

The Globe's 2013 new writing programme kicks off with this pleasing-sounding curiousity, a trumpet-based musical extravaganza based around the skills of comely classical music superstar Alison Balsom. The natural trumpeter will tackle works by Handel...

Harry the Sixth

West End, Drama, Shakespeare, Outdoor theatre

The Globe's ambitious 2013 touring programme includes all of Shakespeare's 'Henry VI' trilogy, here redubbed 'Harry the Sixth', 'The Houses of York and Lancaster' and 'The True Tragedy of the Duke of York'. Directed by Nick Bagnall, the three shows will...

The Houses of York and Lancaster

West End, Shakespeare, Outdoor theatre

Intrigue mounts as the two great English houses jostle for control of the country and nice guy Henry loses his grip on power in the second part of Shakespeare's 'Henry VI' trilogy, directed by Nick Bagnall in a touring version.

Indian Tempest

West End, Drama, Foreign-language performance, Shakespeare, Outdoor theatre

Due to the volume of visiting international work, the Globe's 2013 season in no way confusingly contains two productions of 'King Lear' and two of 'The Tempest'. Nonetheless, you're hardly likely to get them mixed up: this wild version of Shakespeare's...

King Lear

West End, Foreign-language performance, Shakespeare, Outdoor theatre

The internationally acclaimed Belarus Free Theatre returns to London with last year's Globe to Globe hit, this bold, political version of Shakespeare’s great tragedy. Performed in Belarussian.

The Lightning Child

West End, Drama, Outdoor theatre

The final piece of new writing in the Globe's 2013 season is this wild 'remix' of Euripides’s 'The Bacchae' from writer Ché Walker and director Matthew Dunster, the team that created 2009's controversial 'The Frontline'.

Macbeth

West End, Shakespeare, Outdoor theatre

She was an acclaimed Lady Macbeth at the Globe back in 2001 – and now actress Eve Best is to return to Shakespeare’s Scottish gorefest, this time in the director’s chair. The cast is shaping up very nicely indeed, with Joseph Millson as the murderous...

A Midsummer Night's Dream

West End, Shakespeare, Outdoor theatre

• Rating: 4/5
• Critics' choice

After slightly drizzly season opener ‘The Tempest’, this rollicking ‘Dream’ finds the Globe at its crowd-pleasing best, a hearty and hilarious night of feral fairies, mud-spattered lovers and clodhopping mechanicals. Director Dominic Dromgoole clearly...

Sackler Storydays

Things to do, Families, Kids' activities, Shakespeare

A chance to introduce children to Shakespeare, these morning storytelling sessions see educator Debs Newbold retell the Shakespeare's stories in a dramatic, but accessible way. On August 14 children can discover the intricacies of political tragedy 'King...

Sackler Storydays

Things to do, Families, Kids' activities, Shakespeare

A chance to introduce children to Shakespeare, these morning storytelling sessions see educator Debs Newbold retell the Shakespeare's stories in a dramatic, but accessible way. On August 14 children can discover the intricacies of political tragedy 'King...

The Taming of the Shrew

Comedy, Classical theatre, Shakespeare

The Globe revives its Mark Rylance-era tradition of all female cast productions of Shakespeare for a take on 'Taming of the Shrew' that ought to go some way to solving its ever problematic gender issues.Joe Murphey will direct the production, which calls...

The Tempest

West End, Shakespeare, Outdoor theatre

• Rating: 3/5

Here’s a pitch for a sitcom: there’s this middle-aged bachelor – let’s have him played by Roger Allam from ‘The Thick of It’, say – and he’s also a magician, right? And he lives on a desert island with his precocious teenage daughter Miranda – maybe somebody...

The True Tragedy of the Duke of York

West End, Shakespeare, Outdoor theatre

It is all kicking off in the third part of Shakespeare's 'Henry VI' trilogy, as the Yorkists and the Lancastrians contest the crown of England in the bloodiest ways imaginable. There are battles aplenty in the third of Nick Bagnall's productions, which...