Globe Announces 2011 Season ‘The Word Is God’
Shakespeare’s Globe has today (5 November 2010) announced its 2011 season, entitled “The Word Is God” to celebrate the 400th anniversary of the King James Bible, which was completed in 1611. Next year’s season follows the Globe’s 2010 ‘Kings and Rogues’ productions, which achieved a record 91% capacity attendance, up 4% on the previous year.
The 2011 season will launch with a cover-to-cover unstaged reading of The Bible around the Easter weekend, as well as a small-scale touring production of Hamlet, opening on Shakespeare’s birthday (23 April). The first mainstage production of the season will be All’s Well That Ends Well (from 27 April), which will be performed at the Globe for the first time and will be joined in rep by Much Ado About Nothing (from 21 May).
The season’s theme will be followed through with the first Globe production of Doctor Faustus (from 18 June), the classic work by Shakespeare’s contemporary Christopher Marlowe that tells the tale of a man who sells his soul to the devil for power and knowledge. Later in the summer, The Globe Mysteries (from 5 August) will present a fresh perspective on the mystery plays, some of the earliest forms of English drama, which retell the stories of the bible. The Globe Mysteries will combine street theatre and professional performance.
Howard Brenton’s acclaimed new play Anne Boleyn returns to the Globe (from 8 July) following its 2010 premiere run. The season will be brought to a rude and rowdy climax with The God of Soho (from 27 August) by Chris Hannan, a satire on modern living, set in contemporary, suburban England. Hannan’s recent stage credits include The Evil Doers at the Bush Theatre and Shining Souls at the Old Vic.
The Globe will tour As You Like It and Hamlet continuing the tradition of touring Shakespeare which in 2010 reached over 35,000 people at 38 beautiful venues across the UK and Europe.
The 2010 “Kings and Rogues” season, which achieved record-breaking attendance figures, extended by a week to include eight extra performances of Henry IV: Parts I & II. The South Bank venue’s sales figures include 170,000 £5 groundling tickets, which allow audiences members to stand in front of the stage as they would have done in an Elizabethan theatre.
As previously reported, the Globe will open again this January for its Winter Wassail, four performances by Gabrieli Consort and Players which will combine seasonal music inspired the period and readings of Shakespeare, Hardy and Chaucer.
The Globe’s 2010 production of The Merry Wives of Windsor is currently completing its North American tour with dates in Los Angeles and New York. The show then embarks on the Globe’s first large-scale UK tour, playing dates in Milton Keynes, Norwich, Richmond and Bath.
Full dates and performance schedules for the 2011 season will be announced in the new year, ahead of public booking opening on 14 February.
