New Season opens at Shakespeare’s Globe

Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre started is new season of plays last weekend. The performances in the rebuilt theatre are given as they were in Shakespeare’s day, on an open air stage with the elements to deal with.

The season, under the title Renaissance and Revolution, runs from 4 May–7 October and features three Shakespeare plays, Othello, The Merchant of Venice and Love’s Labour’s Lost, and three plays written by other playwrights.

Othello is the story of the republic of Venice employing Othello, a self-made man and a Moor, to defend its overseas territories against the Turks. But he remains an outsider in the city, an object of racism, envy and mistrust. British actor Eamonn Walker, known for the US tv series’s Oz and Justice stars as Othello.

The Merchant of Venice tells how Portia, a wealthy heiress of Belmont, sets her suitors a challenge. He who wins it will win her hand, those who lose it will lose her hand and much more.

Love’s Labour’s Lost is set at the court of Navarre where the young King and three of his courtiers solemnly forswear all pleasures in favour of serious study, but the Princess of France and her lovely entourage have other ideas.

We The People by Eric Schlosser might particularly interest American visitors, it dramatizes the meeting of 50 founding fathers including George Washington, Benjamin Franklin and James Madison in Philadelphia in 1787 and the creation of the US constitution.

In Extremis is Howard Brenton’s play set in 12th century France about a love story and its effect on philosophical and religious arguments at the time.

Holding Fire! Jack Shepherd’s plays centre’s on a young girl’s turbulent life in sordid and violent early Victorian England.

The Globe has seating on three levels and a standing area in front of the stage. Tickets for the seats range in price from £15-£32 and the standing tickets are £5. Beware that because the Globe has been rebuilt as it was in Shakespeare’s time views can be obscured by pillars, but for a top quality performance in a unique theatre its probably worth putting up with. Shakespeare’s Globe is on the south bank of the Thames, just east of Tate Modern.