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There are only two shows in the Globe’s new 2026 indoor winter season – but they’re both extremely intriguing.
The Tempest (Jan 17-Apr 12 2026) is a Globe staple, but you’re unlikely to have ever seen one like this before. The great avant-garde theatre maker Tim Crouch – last seen at the Globe with his one-man Shakespearean kids’ show I, Malvolio – has been given the keys to the theatre. He’ll star as Prospero in a version of the play in which Crouch’s magician, his daughter Miranda, and the spirits Ariel and Caliban are the only living creatures on the island, and the story of their escape is merely a made up tale they tell themselves to pass the years. It should be fascinating, and certainly like no Tempest you’ve seen.
Fascinating for a totally different reason is Deep Azure (Feb 7-Apr 11 2026), a 2005 play by the late Chadwick Boseman who is – of course – better known as a Hollywood actor, most particularly as Black Panther in various Marvel films. Azure Blue predates all that by a long way: it’s a poetic Shakespeare-inspired drama that follows Azure, a young woman whose life spirals out of control after the shooting of her fiancé Deep, and must then have the strength to recover. It’ll be directed by Tristan Fynn-Aiduenu, whose previous credits include the smash hit For Black Boys Who Have Considered Suicide When The Hue Gets Too Heavy.
The new Globe winter programme may be short, but it’s as interesting a season as you’ll see on a British stage anywhere this year (or next)
Public booking will open September 30.
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