Announcing Summer 2023 at the Globe
Step into the story this summer and discover timeless worlds, experience a kaleidoscope of emotions, and imagine possible futures, in a season inspired by the natural world
Hello Summer.
Yes, it’s the news you’ve been waiting for: our Summer 2023 season. This Summer we celebrate Shakespeare’s literary works in a season that speaks directly to our natural world.
Inspired by the magnificence of our wooden ‘O’, a thatched wonder made from 1,000 oak trees, our Summer 2023 season responds to the most pressing conversation of our time: the future of our planet Earth. 2023 also sees us mark the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s First Folio, one of the most important collections ever published. Over four centuries later and Shakespeare’s works remain as relevant today as they did then.
Our Summer 2023 season opens 27 April in our Globe Theatre.
‘2023 is the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s First Folio. Without this collection, 18 of Shakespeare’s plays would have been lost forever including four well known and beloved plays: The Tempest, Comedy of Errors, As You Like It and Macbeth. At a time when we all stand to lose and gain so much, at a time in which we all face huge questions about who, what, and why we are, Theatre remains one of the greatest and safest ways for a society to debate with itself and ask these questions. This summer, with those four folio plays, along with A Midsummer Night’s Dream, we hope to surprise, challenge, excite, illuminate, provoke, and delight, as we continue to put Shakespeare to work for now and for our future on this incredible Globe.
In our theatre, our wooden ‘O’, made from a 1,000 oak trees, the Thames outstretched beside it, the sky above, and the earth below, in which nature, human nature and our in-human nature congregate, converse, commune and connect; what better place to experience these extraordinary plays, in this extraordinary playhouse, at this most extraordinary of times’
— Michelle Terry, Artistic Director
Immerse yourself in the thrill of live theatre
Join the revellers this Summer from 27 April, as Shakespeare’s deliciously disruptive and intoxicating comedy A Midsummer Night’s Dream turns our Globe Theatre upside down and inside out for a wild and unsettling night of love, jealousy and utter confusion.
After her acclaimed productions of The Merry Wives of Windsor (2019), As You Like It and Hamlet (2018), Elle While returns to the Globe Theatre to direct the opening show of our Summer 2023 season, with our Artistic Director Michelle Terry as the mischief-making Puck.
Elle While opens our Summer 2023 season with A Midsummer Night’s Dream from 27 April.
Our Associate Artistic Director Sean Holmes brings Shakespeare’s extraordinary madcap comedy The Comedy of Errors to the Globe stage from 12 May.
We’re seeing double as Shakespeare’s madcap comedy, The Comedy of Errors, unravels in a chaotic Elizabethan world inside our wooden ‘O’ from 12 May.
Long-lost siblings and mistaken identities are a recipe for mayhem, and with our Associate Artistic Director Sean Holmes (The Tempest, 2022) at the helm, you can expect the extraordinary.
What price would you put on power? A couple’s ruthless and unnatural quest for power leaves a trail of destruction.
Following a ‘mesmerising’ The Merchant of Venice in our Sam Wanamaker Playhouse last Winter, Abigail Graham returns for her directorial debut in the Globe Theatre with Shakespeare’s epic tragedy Macbeth, playing from 21 July.
Abigail Graham returns for her directorial debut in the Globe Theatre with Macbeth from 21 July.
Journey into the forest from 18 August with As You Like It directed by Ellen McDougall.
Embark on an adventure this Summer and celebrate love, transformation, and community in the joyous comedy, As You Like It.
Following a ‘superb’ Othello in our Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, Director Ellen McDougall also returns to make her debut in the Globe with Shakespeare’s exuberant tale of romance and redemption, playing from 18 August.
For the night owls, our Midnight Matinées return this summer with A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Performances start at 11.59pm, so as the city settles down and fades away to sleep, revel in the enchanting atmosphere of the Globe under the stars and experience Shakespeare’s plays in a truly unique and magical way.
Shakespeare in the Abbey returns 29 – 31 March 2023 for a series of promenade performances in the iconic and sacred space of Westminster Abbey. Audiences are invited to explore the Abbey, encountering actors performing some of Shakespeare’s much-loved speeches and sonnets.
Shakespeare in the Abbey returns 29 – 31 March for a run of promenade performances in the sacred Westminster Abbey.
Burnt at the Stake, or The Whole of the Truth celebrates the boldest new writing in the Globe Theatre on 13 October.
And in a special night of storytelling on 13 October, we showcase the work of a team of anonymous writers and the tales that need to be told. If you were free, what would you write? If no-one knew you’d said it, what would you say? If you could tell ‘the whole of the truth’ what would you tell? Co-curated by Hannah Khalil and Morgan Lloyd Malcolm, and co-directed by Naeem Hayat and Indiana Lown-Collins, Burnt at the Stake, or The Whole of the Truth celebrates the boldest new writing in the Globe Theatre.
Visiting the Globe as a family? Keep reading for details on our bumper offer to keep younger audiences entertained this Summer…
Summer in our Globe Theatre sees a season that will surprise, challenge, excite, illuminate, provoke, and delight. Photographer: John Wildgoose
Adventure awaits for the whole family
If the thought of spending Spring/Summer cooped up indoors is driving the whole family to madness, we’ve got just the ticket to ease your cabin fever. Keep little monsters entertained with a host of plays, events, and workshops as part of our Summer 2023 season.
This year marks the 17th anniversary of our annual Playing Shakespeare with Deutsche Bank project, created especially to introduce young people and students to Shakespeare. This March we turn to The Tempest, directed by Diane Page (Julius Caesar, 2022) – venture to Prospero’s magical island in this 90-minute version of one of Shakespeare’s most popular comedies.
Thanks to the continued support of Deutsche Bank and their Born to Be project, we are once more able to share over 20,000 free tickets with school children from London and Birmingham, as well as welcoming families to the Globe for their first experience of Shakespeare.
Created especially for young people, our Playing Shakespeare with Deutsche Bank educational project returns for its 17th year with The Tempest, with public performances from 18 March.
Our hilarious family show, Midsummer Mechanicals, returns to the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse from 21 July.
The Midsummer Mechanicals are back! After the mayhem they caused in our Sam Wanamaker Playhouse last year, Nick Bottom’s troupe return for more side-splitting fun for families and young people from 21 July.
Based on A Midsummer Night’s Dream and co-directed by Lucy Cuthbertson and Kerry Frampton, this ‘fantastically funny’ show for families sees the mischievous Mechanicals, led by the ‘unparalleled’ Bottom, attempt to stage a brand new play, but will it be as successful as their first?
From 15–18 July you can also catch Midsummer Mechanicals at Shakespeare North Playhouse, a replica Shakespearean theatre which opened in July 2022.
Our family festival of events returns this Easter and Summer. Uncover the magic of storytelling together in our practical, immersive Family Workshops, or journey through strange lands in our fun Storytelling Sessions exploring Shakespeare’s plays, including A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Macbeth, The Tempest, and Twelfth Night – and if you can’t wait until then, our February half-term events are already on sale!
Budding Young Actors and Young Academics can also get lost exploring Shakespeare’s plays on the stage and via the page, as part of our Summer Short Courses during the holidays, and we have Study Boost Sessions for teenagers.
There’s fun for all the family with our series of interactive events and workshops this Easter and Summer.
Travel back in time to Shakespeare’s London on our Globe Theatre Guided Tours, running throughout the Summer!
The whole family can travel back in time to Shakespeare’s London and hear 400 years of history unfold on a Globe Theatre Guided Tour, running throughout the summer.
Our expert time travellers will reveal all the secrets of our wooden ‘O’, and offer visitors the opportunity to discover Shakespeare at the playhouse for which he wrote, learn more about the history of London, and the story of the Globe Theatre itself. For those with little ones, our family-friendly tours are the perfect introduction for younger visitors!
Phew! What an adventure – we look forward to welcoming the whole family through our great oak doors. Keep reading for details on our series of world-leading Research events, perfect for taking a deeper exploration into Shakespeare’s world.
As well as sharing incredible stories in our open-air Globe Theatre, we’ll also be delving deeper into Shakespeare’s works through our series of Research events. Photographer: Johan Persson
Uncover Shakespeare’s impact on the world with our Research events
Our world-leading Research continues this summer with the return of our Anti-Racist Shakespeare webinars, our exploration into Early Modern performance practice through our Research in Action programme, the return of our bespoke Study Days on Shakespeare’s plays, and we’ll be marking the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s First Folio in a special lecture.
In Anti-Racist Shakespeare, actors and scholars of colour join together for an online webinar series exploring the relationship between race, social justice, and Shakespeare, with discussions on A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Comedy of Errors, Macbeth, and As You Like It.
As well as taking place live on Zoom, these webinars will also be available to watch indefinitely on our YouTube channel – catch up on our previous sessions now.
We continue our research in the field of Shakespeare and Race with new webinars exploring the plays in our Summer 2023 season.
Our experimentation into the staging of Early Modern drama returns with our Research in Action workshops.
This year sees the return of Research in Action, our programme of workshops where we explore the weird and wonderful world of Early Modern drama. In Play On Shakespeare, we explore how Shakespeare’s words are translated for today and in Framing the Play, we examine how playbills, prologues and performance paraphernalia affected an audiences reception of plays.
Inspired by our Summer 2023 productions, you can delve deeper into the world of Shakespeare’s plays in our interactive Study Days. Join a range of speakers for a series of seminars and discussions, culminating in a conversation with Actors from our Summer shows.
To mark the 400th anniversary of the first printed edition of Shakespeare’s collected plays, Professor Emma Smith explores the cultural and societal value in the saving and publishing of Shakespeare’s works for future generations in a special Folio 400 lecture. Combining research, analysis and insightful humour, this talk will consolidate understanding for audiences, students and academics both new to and with enduring passion for Shakespeare.
You can also learn more about Elizabethan publishing processes in our new walking tour: Shakespeare’s Printers and Playscripts.
More information about our 400th anniversary celebrations will follow soon.
2023 sees us celebrate the 400th anniversary of the publication of Shakespeare’s First Folio.
So, when can you get your hands on tickets to our Summer 2023 season? Keeping reading for those all-important booking details, as well as how you can win an exclusive gift package as a Member of Shakespeare’s Globe.
We cannot wait to welcome you back to our wooden ‘O’ this summer – Public Booking for Summer 2023 opens on 7 February 2023. Photographer: Clive Sherlock
Win an exclusive gift package
We have 50 exclusive gift packages to give away to celebrate our Summer 2023 season and the 400th anniversary of the publication of Shakespeare’s First Folio.
Our gift package includes: a limited-edition print of our Folio-inspired lettering; a reproduction copy of a First Folio play; a signed Summer 2023 play programme; and taster bottles of Seedlip non-alcoholic spirit, all bundled together in a newly-designed tote bag.
To be in with a chance of winning, all you need to do is become a Member before our Priority Booking period ends.
The all-important booking information
So, when can you get your hands on tickets to our Summer 2023 season?
Advanced Priority Booking for Patrons opens next Tuesday 24 January at 10.00am. Priority Booking for Friends opens Tuesday 31 January at 10.00am. Sign up as a Member today to access Priority Booking for our summer season, as well as special discounts, invites to exclusive events, workshops and exhibitions, and a dose of insightful articles with our Globe Magazine.
Public Booking opens the following week on Tuesday 7 February at 10.00am.
Once more, hundreds of £5 standing tickets will be available for every performance this summer, with hundreds more at £10. Book early for the best prices.
£5 Yard tickets and £15 seating tickets are also available for Schools groups, subject to availability. A limited number of £5 tickets will also be released close to each performance, providing a last chance way to access the cheapest tickets. Further details will follow in Spring 2023.
You can also save 25% on £65 and £59 tickets when booking two or more productions in the same transaction.
Good company, good wine, good welcome can make good people…
Step into the story this summer and discover timeless worlds, experience a kaleidoscope of emotions, and imagine possible futures with us at Shakespeare’s Globe.
FINIS.
Our Summer 2023 season opens 27 April 2023 and runs until 29 October 2023. Discover more about the season.
Become a Member today to access Advanced & Priority Booking from 24 January 2023.
Public Booking opens 7 February 2023.
Playing Shakespeare with Deutsche Bank is supported by Deutsche Bank’s Born to Be programme.
Midsummer Mechanicals is a co-production with Splendid Productions.
Anti-Racist Shakespeare is sponsored by Cambridge University Press.
Our Research in Action event is in partnership with Play On Shakespeare, a major translation project launched by the Oregon Shakespeare Festival.
The redevelopment of Globe Player has been made possible through support from The Linbury Trust.
Summer 2023 photography by Johan Persson. Typeface by Typeland.
Member Competition Terms & Conditions. This competition is open until Tuesday 7 February 2023, 10.00am. Customers will be automatically entered into the draw if they (a) purchase a Shakespeare’s Globe membership and (b) purchase at least one ticket for a production in our Summer 2023 season before the closing date. Winners will be drawn randomly.
Multi-buy offer Terms & Conditions. Limited availability. This offer only applies to £65 and £59 tickets purchased for A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Comedy of Errors, As You Like It and Macbeth before 1 March 2023. Discount will be applied automatically once eligible tickets have been added to your basket. Tickets must be purchased in the same transaction and the discount cannot be applied retrospectively. This offer is available online at shakespearesglobe.com, by phone via the Shakespeare’s Globe box office, and in person from the Shakespeare’s Globe Box Office (21 New Globe Walk, London SE1 9DT). This offer is not available through any third party retailers. We reserve the right to end this offer at any time.
