Delve into Shakespeare's world with our Winter 2021/22 programme of events

  This winter sees the return of our Women and Power festival, Telling Tales storytelling for all the family, theatre training and workshops, and so much more!

5 minute read

We’ve had a whirlwind summer here at the Globe, after reopening the doors to our great wooden ‘O’ for a summer season full of love, life and catharsis.

Now the nights are drawing in and there’s a crisp chill to the air, we’re ready to step indoors and be bathed in an amber glow as we ready ourselves for our Winter 2021/22 season in our Sam Wanamaker Playhouse.

Alongside our previously announced programme of plays, including Measure for MeasureHamletThe Merchant of Venice and The Fir Tree, today we’re sharing our plans for a host of new events: from festivals exploring social justice to musical performances to storytelling workshops, we hope you can join us by candlelight this winter.

Alongside our previously announced Winter 2021/22 season, we’re also running a series of new events by candlelight in our indoor Sam Wanamaker Playhouse.

Our Women and Power festival returns this December, with panel events, workshops and a scholarly symposium.

In Hamlet and She on 6 December, three extraordinary women will come together to explore what it means to be a woman and take on Shakespeare’s iconic Prince of Denmark. Actress Maxine Peake joins our very own Artistic Director, Michelle Terry, and our Co-Director of Education, Professor Farah-Karim Cooper, for a feminist discussion on the role of Hamlet.

Aligning with our production of Measure for Measure in the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse,  actress Mariah Gale, activist Gina Martin and scholar Dr Emma Whipday will interrogate how the sexual politics of Shakespeare’s problem play can speak to our present moment in an online In Conversation event.

Our world-leading Education department play host to students, academics, teachers, and scholars from across the Globe for our online symposium Empowerment to Disempowerment: Intersectional Voices on 10 December. Together we’ll ask some of the most urgent questions of our day in light of Elizabethan sexual politics, and explore the position of women in Shakespeare’s plays.

Concluding our Women and Power festival, host of the smash-hit comedy feminist podcast, The Guilty Feminist, Deborah Frances-White returns to our Sam Wanamaker Playhouse on 12 December for a live recording, with special guests to be announced soon.

Our Women and Power festival returns with panel events, workshops and a scholarly symposium.

‘Our second Women and Power festival uses Shakespeare’s works to ask questions about our moment and its resonances with the past. Issues that women face today – inequality, sexual harassment, diminished access to power – will be discussed through the lens of Shakespeare, performance and social justice.’

— Professor Farah Karim-Cooper, Co-Director of Education

In an evening created specifically for the unrivalled intimacy of the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, Johnny Flynn and Robert Macfarlane will present the first live performance of their stunning album, Lost in the Cedar Wood, on 6 & 7 February.

Created in lockdown 2020, the album bases itself loosely upon the world’s oldest written work of literature, The Epic of Gilgamesh, with beautiful music woven through with storytelling, drawing audiences on a 4000-year-journey from Mesopotamia through to our present moment.

Two men sit on the ground in a forest, the floor strewn with leaves.

Johnny Flynn returns to the Globe with Robert Macfarlane for a live performance of their new album. Photographer: Hanna-Katrina Jedrosz

An illustration of black and white fingerprints on a red background

Our Anti-Racist Shakespeare series continues this winter, led by Professor Farah Karim-Cooper.

Continuing our commitment to decolonising the plays of Shakespeare, our Anti-Racist Shakespeare webinars return alongside our winter season of plays, inviting distinguished guests to explore Measure for MeasureHamlet and The Merchant of Venice through the lens of race, social justice and Shakespeare.

A wide angled shot of the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse with its ornate painting ceiling depicting the Goddess Luna and clouds, hanging candelabra, and panelled painted doors.

Our Sam Wanamaker Playhouse plays host to musical performances, live podcast recordings, and scholarly discussions this winter. Photographer: Johan Persson

Families will also once again be able to undergo an interactive adventure through Shakespeare’s plays with our Telling Tales festival of storytelling and workshops, taking place in the February half term. Activities will take place both onsite and online for families around the world, with plays retold for younger audiences including The Merchant of Venice, HamletRomeo and Juliet, and Twelfth Night.

A graphic illustration shows a young person taking place in a workshops and they are surrounded by cartoons of children

Our Telling Tales family storytelling festival returns for February half term.

Our Youth Theatre is a weekly training programme for young performers hungry to engage with acting and performance.

Hungry to act and perform? Budding young performers are invited to join our Youth Theatre, running from January to July next year. You’ll get the opportunity to work with experienced, professional actors and directors here at the Globe! We’re also offering free taster sessions this 20 & 27 November to know what to expect.

2022 marks the 16th anniversary of one of the most impactful and longest-running cultural education projects in the UK, Playing Shakespeare with Deutsche Bank, and next March, we turn to Shakespeare’s wicked tragedy, Macbeth. Our flagship education project is created especially for young people, and sees us provide 20,000 free tickets to state secondary schools in London and Birmingham so they can experience the thrill of live theatre. 

We’ll also be continuing to support teachers through a variety of online and onsite Continued Professional Development workshops, including Teach Shakespeare: Romeo and JulietShakespeare and Women, and Teaching Anti-Racist Shakespeare: Othello, The Merchant of Venice, and The Tempest. Sessions will equip teachers with strategies to facilitate conversations with their classes about topics such as race, sexism, misogyny, and depictions of women in Shakespeare.

‘We have loved having schools and families return to the Globe and we continue the work to enable younger audiences to access these key texts. We have created new storytelling performances of Hamlet and The Merchant of Venice to both support and compliment the productions in the Winter Season. We are also delighted to see the return of Globe Youth Theatre.’

— Lucy Cuthbertson, Co-Director of Education

Sir Toby and Sir Andrew from Twelfth Night, dance around the stage as colourful confetti rains over them and the groundlings in the yard.

Our flagship education project, Playing Shakespeare with Deutsche Bank, returns for its 16th year with Macbeth. Photographer: Cesare de Giglio

So, when can you get your hands on tickets to events in our Winter 2021/22 season?

Priority Booking for Friends, Best Friends & Patrons opens this Thursday 4 November at 10.00am.

Sign up as a Member today to access Priority Booking for our winter season, as well as a special 20% discount to our Telling Tales festival, invites to exclusive events like our Heaven to Hell behind-the-scenes experience and Members’ Drama Club, and a dose of insightful articles via the digital Members’ Room and Globe Magazine.

Public Booking opens on Friday 5 November at 10.00am.

We hope you can join us in our amazing candlelit Sam Wanamaker Playhouse this winter for what promises to be a season filled with heart, humour, and humanity.

#PlayByCandlelight

FINIS.


Our Winter 2021/22 season opens 19 November 2021 and runs until 9 April 2022. Discover more about the season.

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