Globe All Seasons

[zahidf]

"Shakespeare’s Globe has unveiled its forthcoming summer season for 2024, featuring a number of Shakespeare productions, returning creatives and a brand-new play.



The season opens on 25 April with associate artistic director Sean Holmes at the helm of Much Ado About Nothing, featuring Ekow Quartey and Amalia Vitale in the roles of Benedick and Beatrice.



Artistic director Michelle Terry will take center stage as the titular character in Richard III, directed by Elle While and scheduled to run from 9 May.



After that, Jude Christian will make a main-stage Globe debut with The Taming of the Shrew, transforming the Globe into an absurd carnival from 6 June. Blanche McIntyre will then return to direct Antony and Cleopatra, with Nadia Nadarajah starring as Cleopatra in a bilingual production. Further cast includes William Grint and Nadeem Islam. Holmes’ well-received 2023 production, The Comedy of Errors, will make a comeback from 21 August before embarking on a tour.



Adding some new writing to the season, a world premiere play titled Princess Essex will run in the autumn, written by and featuring Anne Odeke in the lead role. The comedy, set in Southend-on-Sea, Essex, in 1908, recounts the true story of Princess Dinubolu, the first woman of color to enter a beauty pageant in the UK. Robin Belfield will direct the production, scheduled to run from 13 September.



For families, the award-nominated team behind Midsummer Mechanicals will present a new family show, Rough Magic, in the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse from 20 July. Playing Shakespeare with Deutsche Bank’s Romeo & Juliet, the next instalment in the flagship project for secondary schools, will be directed by Globe director of education Lucy Cuthbertson and makes its return on 19 March. This production, designed to support the curriculum, offers a gripping 90-minute rendition set in the present day."

[oxfordsimon]

Has the Globe PR team moved to the US?

"Center stage", "color" are not conventional UK spellings.

Putting that to one side, there isn't much to excite me there. I don't know how well they did in 2023, but this feels quite safe in terms of choice of repertoire. So perhaps they need to be more commercial in the current climate.

[Jan]

Jan 23, 2024 11:03:34 GMT oxfordsimon said:

Has the Globe PR team moved to the US?

"Center stage", "color" are not conventional UK spellings.

Putting that to one side, there isn't much to excite me there. I don't know how well they did in 2023, but this feels quite safe in terms of choice of repertoire. So perhaps they need to be more commercial in the current climate.

They're keeping it quiet but Read Not Dead is back with Richard Brome's 1640 play "The English Moor"

[zahidf]

Jan 23, 2024 11:03:34 GMT oxfordsimon said:

Has the Globe PR team moved to the US?

"Center stage", "color" are not conventional UK spellings.

Putting that to one side, there isn't much to excite me there. I don't know how well they did in 2023, but this feels quite safe in terms of choice of repertoire. So perhaps they need to be more commercial in the current climate.

They said that the 2023 season was a big Success, which is why they are doing more plays this year to include a new play, as their finances are more stable. 

From Time out


"In a break from the doom and gloom that’s gripped the theatre world recently, Shakespeare’s Globe boss Michelle Terry revealed at a launch event this week that the iconic Bankside venue’s somewhat conservative 2023 season – just four shows, all big-name Shakespeare plays – payed off better than expected, stabilising the theatre’s rocky post-pandemic finances and allowing a bigger, riskier 2024 season."

Taming of the Shrew and the new play sound most interesting to me

[princeton]

I suspect the initial posting is a lift from the What's On Stage story. The Globe press release doesn't use the phrase 'center stage' and uses 'colour'.

Slightly surprised that Much Ado About Nothing which they only did in 2022 is returning so soon, albeit in a new production.

An earlier, one-person, incarnation of Princess Essex was co-commissioned by the Queen's Hornchurch and did a small scale tour of community venues in Essex in 2022 (same writer/actor and director). I'm assuming this is an expanded version with a full cast.

[adamkinsey]

Another production of Much Ado just two years later? Really?

[ladidah]

Much Ado is my favourite, but it seems to be performed there every 2 mins!

[cavocado]

Taming of the Shrew is the one I'd like to see, if only because it's so rarely done now.

It's too soon for another Much Ado, but I wonder if the Elizabethan dress means they've learned from the success of last year's fairly traditional CoE.

I can't imagine Michele Terry as RIII, so will wait for reviews.

[ladidah]

I love the Globe, and I go often but I've been put off in recent years. Even with cushions, the seats are so, so uncomfortable for 3+ hours. I also always get stuck seated nearby with large groups of tourist teens who talk all through.

[fossil]

I am curious as to the pricing of Yard standing tickets. Looking at the currently available production, if I try to buy a Yard ticket it offers two options for me to buy at £5 and £10 (with £2.50 and £5 for under 16s).

Last time I went, the Yard was a single open space. Can anybody enlighten me as to why two price options?

[zahidf]

Jan 24, 2024 13:41:37 GMT fossil said:

I am curious as to the pricing of Yard standing tickets. Looking at the currently available production, if I try to buy a Yard ticket it offers two options for me to buy at £5 and £10 (with £2.50 and £5 for under 16s).

Last time I went, the Yard was a single open space. Can anybody enlighten me as to why two price options?

they are the same tickets, the price stays at £10.00 when the £5 tickets sell out. You can opt to pay £10.00 as a 'gesture'

[TallPaul]

Jan 23, 2024 10:08:03 GMT zahidf said:

Shakespeare’s Globe has unveiled its forthcoming summer season for 2024, featuring a number of Shakespeare productions, returning creatives and a brand-new play.

This could catch on.  Noel Coward plays at the Noel Coward Theatre...Ivor Novello musicals at the Novello... 

[oxfordsimon]

I see there is some online upset over Terry's casting as Richard III because she does not have lived experience of disability.

I know this is something we have debated a number of times. But the Globe should have been out in front of this one.

They have a pretty decent record in terms of casting inclusivity so should have been aware of the likelihood of a backlash.

Speaking personally I don't believe that this particular role should now only be cast with a disabled actor. The character is much more than a medical condition or physical challenge.

But I suspect major companies will need to explain their casting better in the future.

I don't think Terry is right for the role but that is nothing to do with disability. It is not great optics when the AD casts herself in this way.

[David J]

I wonder how those people felt about Davros no longer being in a wheelchair in Dr Who because it's bad to represent disabled people as genocidal monsters

Or is murdering a few members of your royal family, including two kids, fine.

[Jan]

Jan 24, 2024 18:03:22 GMT TallPaul said:

Jan 23, 2024 10:08:03 GMT zahidf said:

Shakespeare’s Globe has unveiled its forthcoming summer season for 2024, featuring a number of Shakespeare productions, returning creatives and a brand-new play.

This could catch on.  Noel Coward plays at the Noel Coward Theatre...Ivor Novello musicals at the Novello... 

British plays at the Royal National Theatre of Great Britain ? Unlikely given their obsession with USA.

[Dave B]

Richard III getting some negative coverage

www.theguardian.com/stage/2024/jan/25/shakespeares-globe-criticised-for-casting-able-bodied-actor-as-richard-iii-michelle-terry

[aspieandy]

Someone has to say it: Hoist with his/her own petard

[oxfordsimon]

Terry and the rest of the management team should have been better prepared for this sort of reaction.

I think the casting is wrong but only because Terry keeps giving herself these high profile roles and I am never comfortable with ADs doing that.

As I said earlier, the Globe has a decent track record of inclusive casting. I don't know how Francesca Mills views her achondrophasia but the recent announcement of her casting as the title character in The Duchess of Malfi is a significant milestone for inclusive casting.
Arthur Hughes is also in that cast.

The casting of three d/Deaf actors in the forthcoming A&C is similarly significant.

The Globe should have had better answers ready for why Terry is taking on this role than they have done this far.

[zahidf]

Jan 25, 2024 14:30:08 GMT oxfordsimon said:

Terry and the rest of the management team should have been better prepared for this sort of reaction.

I think the casting is wrong but only because Terry keeps giving herself these high profile roles and I am never comfortable with ADs doing that.

As I said earlier, the Globe has a decent track record of inclusive casting. I don't know how Francesca Mills views her achondrophasia but the recent announcement of her casting as the title character in The Duchess of Malfi is a significant milestone for inclusive casting.
Arthur Hughes is also in that cast.

The casting of three d/Deaf actors in the forthcoming A&C is similarly significant.

The Globe should have had better answers ready for why Terry is taking on this role than they have done this far.

Its probably something which is going to effect all productions of Richard 3rd going forwards and which will have to be taken into account

tbf to Terry, she hasnt taken a lot of major roles at the globe, mainly seems to be supporting parts as part of a ensemble

[oxfordsimon]

There is always a conflict when staging R3 and that is how far you take account of the historical character when tackling a script which is very much rooted in Tudor anti-Richard propaganda.

I directed the piece before the bones were found in the carpark and I looked at the historical record that highlighted how unencumbered the real Richard was when in battle, how the famous portrait had been modified to exaggerate the visual presentation of the scoliosis. I genuinely do not believed that the real Richard would have viewed himself as being disabled. He just got on and did what he needed to do. The research that followed the Leicester discovery shows how the historical Richard could have lead a full and active life.

My approach was to focus on his psychological issues which are very much at the heart of Shakespeare's characterisation and are the ones that draw in the audience and make them complicit with his villainy.

There are few actors who can truly capture the essence of the character that Shakespeare created and imposing limits as to who can be considered for the role is problematic.

[oxfordsimon]

Jan 25, 2024 14:37:50 GMT zahidf said:

Jan 25, 2024 14:30:08 GMT oxfordsimon said:

Terry and the rest of the management team should have been better prepared for this sort of reaction.

I think the casting is wrong but only because Terry keeps giving herself these high profile roles and I am never comfortable with ADs doing that.

As I said earlier, the Globe has a decent track record of inclusive casting. I don't know how Francesca Mills views her achondrophasia but the recent announcement of her casting as the title character in The Duchess of Malfi is a significant milestone for inclusive casting.
Arthur Hughes is also in that cast.

The casting of three d/Deaf actors in the forthcoming A&C is similarly significant.

The Globe should have had better answers ready for why Terry is taking on this role than they have done this far.

Its probably something which is going to effect all productions of Richard 3rd going forwards and which will have to be taken into account

tbf to Terry, she hasnt taken a lot of major roles at the globe, mainly seems to be supporting parts as part of a ensemble

Hamlet, Viola, Titania, Hotspur, Lady Macbeth

These are all major parts

[Latecomer]

Terry is a great actor. I have no problem with seeing her in main parts and always silently go “hurrah” when she is announced. End of.

[Jan]

Jan 24, 2024 23:17:23 GMT oxfordsimon said:

.

But I suspect major companies will need to explain their casting better in the future.

Why should theatres have to explain their casting at all ? And if they do, who gets to decide which bits of casting they have to explain ? For example Greg Doran never explained why he kept casting Antony Sher even though I disapproved of it, why not ? Or is it only things The Guardian disapprove of that have to be explained ?

[oxfordsimon]

If they want to avoid internet pile ones, they need to have a media strategy in place.

I don't think they have done anything worthy of a backlash but they should have anticipated one and prepared a better statement than the one issued

I always oppose nepotistic casting but it is just too ingrained in arts culture I fear. Doran and Terry are both guilty of it.

[aspieandy]

'scuce me, sir; is that an internet pylon?
No, you fool. That is an internet pile on.
I see, and which one should I avoid?
Are you in the arts or a pilot?
Neither.
Then go away.