Shakespeare’s Globe to reopen in May with summer season announced

The Bard is back!

The iconic Southbank venue, Shakespeare's Globe, will reopen with a crowdpleasing season of Shakespeare plays this summers. Performances will begin from 19 May, including revivals, new adaptations and audiences choosing the show they'll see.

Artistic director of Shakespeare's Globe, Michelle Terry said: "This is a historic moment, and not to be underestimated; we have a long way to go as we emerge and heal from this, but theatre can help us get there: that's what it's for. To express the often inexpressible, bear the often unbearable, laugh, cry, be - safely - together."

Shakespeare's Globe will reopen with A Midsummer Night's Dream, last staged in 2019. Casting includes Shona Babayem, Peter Bourke, Rachel Hannah Clarke, Bryan Dick, Victoria Elliott, George Fouracres, Nadine Higgin, Nadi Kemp-Sayfi, Ciarán O'Brien, Sophie Russell and Jacoba Williams. A Midsummer Night's Dream runs on selected dates from 19 May - 30 October.

The same cast will star in Twelfth Night, running from 29 July - 30 October. Michelle Terry will join the cast though, playing Viola. Sean Holmes will direct both A Midsummer Night's Dream and Twelfth Night, with Jim Fortune providing music for both.

Ola Ince's production of Romeo and Juliet will also return to Shakespeare's Globe in 2021, after its 2020 run was cancelled due to the pandemic. Alfred Enoch will play Romeo, previously in Red at Wyndham's Theatre, with Rebekah Murrell as Juliet. Further casting includes Beth Cordingly, Will Egerton, Adam Gillen, Clara Indrani, Zoe West, Dwane Walcott and Sargon Yelda. Romeo and Juliet runs from 26 June - 17 October.

As You Like It and The Tempest will also be performed this season by Shakespeare's Globe's touring ensemble. Later in the season, audiences will be able to vote for their desired show, between A Midsummer Night's Dream, As You Like It and The Tempest. The company includes Katy Secombe, recently in Les Miserables: The All-Star Staged Concert at the Sondheim Theatre, alongside Stephenson Ardern-Sodje, Tom Chapman, Anna Crichlow, Mark Desebrock, Emma Ernest, Colm Gormley and Sara Lessore.

Shakespeare's Globe was rebuilt in the 1990s, along with an indoor Sam Wanamaker Playhouse. The Sam Wanamaker Playhouse will reopen later this year with a new adaptation of Ovid's Metamorphoses, from 30 September - 30 October.

Tickets for shows at Shakespeare's Globe in 2021 are on sale now.

^{Photo credit: Shakespeare's Globe (Photo by Can Pac Swire on Flickr)}