NEWS: Shakespeare’s Globe announces details of summer season

Shakespeare’s Globe has announced its summer season 2019. The celebration and interrogation of ‘our sceptred isle’ through Shakespeare’s history plays continues with Henry IV Parts 1 and 2, and Henry V, while elsewhere there is A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Merry Wives of Windsor, Ben Jonson’s Bartholomew Fair, and the return of 2018’s As You Like It.

The cast for Henry IV Parts 1 and 2, and Henry V will comprise the new resident Globe Ensemble, echoing the approach that Shakespeare’s company would have taken over 400 years ago. The Globe Ensemble includes Tayo Akinbode, Sarah Amankwah, Philip Arditti, Sarah Bedi, Nina Bowers, Jonathan Broadbent, Leaphia Darko, Steffan Donnelly, Federay Holmes, John Leader, Sophie Russell, Oliver Ryan, Helen Schlesinger, Michelle Terry, Rob Walker, Siân Williams, and Jessica Worrall.

Sarah Bedi and Federay Holmes will direct, and Michelle Terry will play Hotspur in Henry IV Part 1. Terry is currently playing Lady Macbeth in Macbeth in the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse. Her other credits include the titular role in Hamlet, Adam and other characters in As You Like It (Globe, 2018), Cleansed (National Theatre), and Tribes (Royal Court), for which she won an Olivier Award for Best Supporting Actress.

Helen Schlesinger will play Falstaff (Henry IV Part 1 & 2), and Sarah Amankwah will play Hal in Henry IV Parts 1 & 2, and the titular role in Henry V. Amankwah is currently starring in Doctor Faustus in the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse. Her previous credits include Amadeus, The Threepenny Opera(National Theatre), Black Earth Rising (BBC/Netflix) and ITV’s drama series Marcella. Schlesinger performed in Hamlet and As You Like It as part of the Globe Ensemble last summer. Her other credits include Albion (Almeida), Coriolanus (Donmar Warehouse), The Crucible (RSC),The Hour and Criminal Justice (BBC).

The Merry Wives of Windsor opens on 17 May 2019, directed by Nicole Charles and Elle While. The production will be broadcast live into cinemas on 20 June. Charles was most recently at the Globe, directing Emilia, which transfers to the West End from 8 March – 15 June this year.

Opening 28 June 2019, A Midsummer Night’s Dream will be directed by associate artistic director Sean Holmes. He recently announced his departure from the Lyric Hammersmith after almost a decade as artistic director and joint chief executive.

Opening 23 August, Bartholomew Fair, Ben Jonson’s raucous comedy on London life, will be directed by Blanche McIntyre who returns to the Globe, having most recently directed The Winter’s Tale (2018).

Brendan O’Hea returns to direct Globe on Tour, where a company of eight actors will once again offer audiences around the world a trio of plays which this year explore the themes of refuge and displacement. Continuing last summer’s experiment, which revived the Shakespearean tradition of allowing audiences to vote for the play they’d like to see, this year’s audiences will cast their votes for The Comedy of Errors, Twelfth Night or Pericles.

A day of panel discussions and workshops will take place on 9 March to mark the 400th anniversary of the death of Richard Burbage and also marking 100 years since the birth of the founder of Shakespeare’s Globe, Sam Wanamaker. Read Not Dead performances will return between February and September, this year celebrating the most famous outlaw in English history, Robin Hood. Maid Marian, Robin Hood, Maid Marian and Friar Tuck will also reappear in the annual family festival, Shakespeare’s Telling Tales, taking place between 26 and 28 July to celebrate the joy of storytelling.

In May, Women & Power will comprise performances, panel events, a scholarly symposium and workshops to highlight the work and voices of women of all backgrounds. Poland is Hamlet, a two-week festival commencing on 26 June, will celebrate Poland’s affinity and fascination with Shakespeare’s works. This year will also see a return of Shakespeare Within the Abbey: All Places that the Eye of Heaven Visits, directed by Claire van Kampen. In celebration of Shakespeare’s birthday, Mark Rylance will bring together a company of 22 actors in Westminster Abbey to roam amongst the audience performing fleeting extracts of drama, poetry and song.

This year’s Playing Shakespeare with Deutsche Bank production will be Romeo and Juliet, directed by Michael Oakley who returns to the Globe after directing last year’s Playing Shakespeare production of Much Ado About Nothing.

SHAKESPEARE’S GLOBE SUMMER SEASON