‘The course of true love never did run smooth,’ remarks Lysander near the start of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and the veracity of his statement soon becomes apparent in what is one of Shakespeare’s best-loved comedies, where magic and mischief unite against the backdrop of a turbulent fairy kingdom as well as six rude mechanicals attempting to stage their own play. Starring Olivier Award winner Michelle Terry as Titania/Hippolyta (described by The Guardian as ‘magnificently imperious’) and an irresistibly funny Pearce Quigley as Bottom, this touching new production by the Globe’s Artistic Director Dominic Dromgoole features ‘consistently inventive’ staging that ‘beautifully captures both the humor and the disconcerting strangeness of the play’ (The Daily Telegraph). Filmed in High Definition and true Surround Sound.

REVIEWS:

"Michelle Terry's Hippolyta/Titania is magnificently imperious...and Pearce Quigley brings a caustic Lancastrian lugubriousness to Bottom, departing in a memorable hissy fit during rehearsals, suitcase in hand." (The Guardian)

"Dominic Dromgoole’s lively affectionate and consistently inventive staging beautifully captures both the humour and the disconcerting strangeness of the play. Matthew Tennyson proves a fascinatingly ethereal Puck...Pearce Quigley’s wonderfully enjoyable Bottom isn’t just the usual vainglorious bumpkin. He suggests a vein of northern melancholy too, and he is also extremely touchy...the greatest pleasure of this production is the rude mechanicals. They make their initial entrance performing a delightfully nifty clog dance and you really feel these are working men who know each other intimately. This a joyously inventive and touching production of The Dream, a work that seems particularly close to Shakespeare’s heart." (The Daily Telegraph ★★★★)

"Matthew Tennyson's Puck is beguilingly fey, while Luke Thompson, as a Lysander beaming with childlike over-enthusiasm, makes a professional debut of some note in this warm, comic production...a warm, comic vision ideally pitched to this performance space. [Dominic Dromgoole's] production bursts with crowd-pleasing gestures..." (The Evening Standard ★★★★)

Twins Sebastian and Viola are shipwrecked on the coast of Illyria, separated and believing each other to be dead. Beside herself with grief, Viola disguises herself as a boy and goes into the service of the Duke Orsino. The Duke, madly in love with the Countess Olivia, sends Viola to woo on his behalf. What could possibly go wrong? Olivia falls in love with the cross-dressed page while Viola falls deep and fast for Orsino. Meanwhile, mischievous servants play painful pranks at each other’s expense. Heady chaos ensues as griefs, loves and deep human confusions collide, but fear not! Sweet resolution wins the day as friends, twins and lovers are reunited. Cross-dressing, hijinks and bittersweet hilarity as Emma Rice directs Shakespeare’s timeless, soulful and irrepressible comedy – in a production unlike any other, taking the spirit and frivolity of disco to the high seas!

Reviews

"Twelfth Night reserves its sharpest barbs for purists and puritans. The humiliation of Malvolio, with his rule-bound antipathy to everything the play celebrates – excesses of music and food and love – is its abiding image. Rarely can that theme have seemed as pointed as in Emma Rice’s life-loving production at the Globe. Rice finds in Twelfth Night a brilliant reminder that, set against love and life, melancholy can be a little overrated." (The Guardian ★★★★)

"I watched much of the show with a broad smile on my face, both for its audacity and downright cheek...the most entertaining, exciting Twelfth Night for years...wonderfully refreshing." (The Daily Mail ★★★★★)

"Twelfth Night is often seen as Shakespeare's "perfect comedy", and in the hands of Emma Rice and her cast this production certainly lives up to those expectations. It's entertaining, heartfelt and extremely uplifting." (Broadway World ★★★★★)

" ...this show is pretty much essential viewing." (The Daily Telegraph ★★★★)

"It boasts an exuberant cast – blessed with a widely lauded performance from Katy Owen as Malvolio – and even some of Rice’s staunchest opponents admit that it generates mountains of feel-good energy." (The Stage)

"Audiences should take note: drop your guard, forget 'proper Shakespeare blah blah' and just enjoy. This Twelfth Night's a delight: a cheek-ache from start to finish. Great art? Probably not. Great fun? You bet." (WhatsOnStage ★★★★)

This special set brings together three of Shakespeare’s best-loved comedies, from the hilarious tale of misdirection and deception that is Twelfth Night to the slapstick humor of The Taming of Shrew and the magic and mischief that jointly characterize A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Brimming with first-class British acting – including stand-out performances from such lauded individuals as Michelle Terry, Samantha Spiro, Mark Rylance and Stephen Fry – this trio of award-winning Globe Theatre productions brilliantly underscores the humor that is inherent in each of the three Elizabethan dramas, with inventive staging, outstanding costumes and original music performed on period-style instruments providing the finishing touches to a must-have collection.

Reviews

"Although this is ensemble theatre at its finest, it’s Rylance’s contribution that puts the production among all-time Shakespeare greats. Frankly unmissable." (The Daily Telegraph on Twelfth Night)

"...it is difficult to imagine that Twelfth Night could be performed more effectively than it currently is at the Globe theatre..." (The Guardian on Twelfth Night)

"This is a crowd-pleasing production...and the laughs come thick and fast" (The Evening Standard on The Taming of the Shrew)

"Matthew Tennyson's Puck is beguilingly fey, while Luke Thompson, as a Lysander beaming with childlike over-enthusiasm, makes a professional debut of some note in this warm, comic production...a warm, comic vision ideally pitched to this performance space. [Dominic Dromgoole's] production bursts with crowd-pleasing gestures..." (The Evening Standard on A Midsummer Night's Dream ★★★★)

From its mesmerizing first moments to the final fulfillment of the witches’ prophecy, Macbeth is one of Shakespeare’s darkest and most powerful tragedies – a gripping account of one man’s determination to secure his ambition and pronounced destiny, the crown of Scotland, by whatever means necessary. Filmed in High Definition and true surround sound, this production marked actor Eve Best’s sensational debut as a director and was described as ‘cracking – at times, terrifying’ (Daily Telegraph). Joseph Millson and Samantha Spiro lead the cast, offering ‘superb fresh-minted performances’ as the power-obsessed Macbeth and his increasingly guilt-ridden wife.

Reviews

Samantha Spiro as Lady Macbeth and Joseph Millson as Macbeth give a rousing, frenetic portrait of a power-couple with a compulsion for bloodshed...Millson’s constant disbelief at what he is doing is a source of much of the production’s humour. But because he performs with such conviction, cumulatively it also packs a horrific punch – not least when he makes grasp for his wife’s throat...one of the warmest productions of ‘Macbeth’ you’ll ever see, but one which still strikes the requisite chill to the heart. Time Out

Millson [delivers] the famous “sound and fury” speech with a quiet desperation and indeed it is in the play’s quieter moments when he is given the chance to stand still that he really shines. The Upcoming

"Eve Best's directorial debut is a cracking – at times, terrifying – production of Macbeth." (The Daily Telegraph on Macbeth)

Widely considered to be the last of his solo plays, The Tempest is Shakespeare’s final masterpiece, a tale of ‘forgiveness, generosity and enlightenment’ in which Prospero, the rightful Duke of Milan, conjures up a storm to lure his perfidious brother to the enchanted island on which he and his daughter Miranda have spent 12 years in exile. Combining sumptuous Jacobean costume with enchanting music and ‘spellbinding staging’ (The Daily Telegraph), this acclaimed Globe production – starring Olivier Award winner Roger Allam as a ‘poignantly humane’ Prospero (The Financial Times) – is a touching portrayal of one of the Bard's most lyrical stage works. Filmed in High Definition and true Surround Sound.

Review

The first installment of what is widely acknowledged to be Shakespeare’s greatest historical saga, Henry IV Part 1 is an epic tale of power, treachery and war, exploring the complexity of father-son relationships. Featuring an Olivier award-winning performance from Roger Allam as Falstaff, the comical mentor to Jamie Parker’s Prince Hal, this is a celebrated presentation of the English classic, expertly directed by Dominic Dromgoole.

REVIEWS:

"Henry IV is the Shakespeare play that's perfectly suited to the Globe. In Dominic Dromgoole's intelligent, faithful and entertaining new production, Sir John Falstaff, that 'sweet creature of bombast', might have stopped for a pint of sack in Southwark en route for a rendezvous with Doll Tearsheet at the Boar's Head." (The Guardian)

"It is the first time these wonderful plays have been staged at the reconstructed globe and it may be one of this theatres finest achievements." (The Daily Telegraph)

Portia, a wealthy heiress of Belmont, is forced to set her suitors a challenge. The winner will win her hand in marriage; the losers will lose her hand and much more. In Venice, the epicenter of consumption, speculation and debt, Bassanio borrows money from his friend Antonio to finance his attempt. Antonio, in turn, takes out a loan from the moneylender Shylock. The loan will be repaid when Antonio’s ships return to the city. But if the ships fail to return, and the money cannot be repaid, Antonio will give to Shylock a pound of his own flesh. And they do fail. And Shylock will have his ‘bond’. In some of his most highly-charged scenes, Shakespeare dramatizes the competing claims of tolerance and intolerance, religious law and civil society, justice and mercy; while in the character of Shylock he created one of the most memorable outsiders in all theatre. Double Olivier and Tony award winner Jonathan Pryce plays Shylock in his first appearance at Shakespeare’s Globe.

REVIEWS:

"Jonathan Munby's exceptionally well-told, well-played, well-paced, well-dressed revival...The Globe at its best." (The Mail on Sunday ★★★★★)

"A finely balanced, intelligent production." (The Times ★★★★)

"Jonathan Pryce is electrifyingly good… Jonathan Munby’s production really sings." (Time Out ★★★★)

"Jonathan Pryce, making his Globe debut, presents us with a Shylock of weight, gravity and considerable complexity." (The Guardian ★★★★)

"Director Jonathan Munby...extracts maximum comedy. He gives full weight to the romance, with Daniel Lapine and David Sturzaker excellent as the Venetian young bloods." (The Sunday Express ★★★★)

"Jonathan Munby’s oak-solid, finely weighted production…The lighter and darker elements combine in a seamless whole." (The Daily Telegraph)

"Jonathan Pryce as Shylock and his daughter, Phoebe…an inspiration. It’s a family affair – a double star turn." (The Observer ★★★★★)

"Pryce is excellent, with a notable gravitas and richness of performance. There’s particularly lovely work from Dorothea Myer-Bennett as Nerissa…she offers a delicious range of expressive looks and gestures." (The Evening Standard)

"A revival that boasts a fine Bassanio in Daniel Lapaine and re-focuses the role of Gratiano (David Sturzaker) as a really good one." (WhatsOnStage ★★★★)

Dominic Dromgoole’s acclaimed Olivier award-winning production is brought to its conclusion in Part 2 of Shakespeare’s historical masterpiece, Henry IV – a thrilling tale of family, treachery and war that surveys the entire panorama of English life. Staged with ‘terrific aplomb’ (Daily Telegraph) and featuring a stellar line-up, this magnificent Globe Theatre performance showcases some of the Bard’s deftest dramatic skill, and confirms why Henry IV is regarded as one of Shakespeare’s finest works. "It is the first time these wonderful plays have been staged at the reconstructed globe and it may be one of this theatre’s finest achievements." (The Daily Telegraph)

REVIEWS:

"Henry IV is the Shakespeare play that's perfectly suited to the Globe. In Dominic Dromgoole's intelligent, faithful and entertaining new production, Sir John Falstaff, that 'sweet creature of bombast', might have stopped for a pint of sack in Southwark en route for a rendezvous with Doll Tearsheet at the Boar's Head." (The Guardian)

"It is the first time these wonderful plays have been staged at the reconstructed globe and it may be one of this theatres finest achievements." (The Daily Telegraph)

This new release is a second trio of outstanding productions of Shakespeare’s greatest tragedies from the Royal Shakespeare Company. In Romeo and Juliet, the most famous story of love at first sight explodes with intense passion. Macbeth is a contemporary production of Shakespeare’s darkest psychological thriller, whilst Troilus and Cressida presents a satirical futuristic vision of a world resounding with the rhythm of battle. Extra features include cast interviews, directors’ commentaries, interviews with creative teams, and more. “Sweeping and confident production of Shakespeare’s rarely performed tragedy” (Evening Standard, Troilus and Cressida) “A fresh, fleet, blade-sharp revival” (The Telegraph, Romeo and Juliet).

Reviews

On Troilus and Cressida:

"Sweeping and confident production of Shakespeare's rarely performed tragedy." (The Evening Standard ★★★★)

"Gregory Doran's epic Mad Max post-apocalypse style Troilus and Cressida, with its swaggering yet flawed superheroes and ill-fated young lovers, opens with a clash of percussion instruments so loud, the night I saw it many of the audience jumped in their seats. The Scottish virtuoso percussionist Evelyn Glennie has composed her first ever theatre score and it is so phenomenally good you can feel every beat – be it a tank drum, vibraphone or an oil can, "the rhythm of war" is almost deafening at times. A hugely entertaining and engrossing three-hour watch." (WhatsOnStage)

"Two performances stand out. Adjoa Andoh memorably brings out the manipulative monstrosity behind Ulysses’s beguiling rhetoric, literally loading the dice when it comes to the choice of a Greek champion to fight Hector. Oliver Ford Davies is a classic Pandarus, brimming over with senile prurience so that even a line such as “I’ll go get a fire” gains a lurking suggestiveness. The central lovers are also well played, with Amber James’s spryly intelligent Cressida provoked beyond endurance by the naive insistence of Gavin Fowler’s Troilus on her fidelity." (The Guardian ★★★)

On Macbeth:

"Christopher Eccleston and Niamh Cusack make a gripping central couple." (The Stage ★★★★★)

"Urgent and wonderfully sinister." (Evening Standard ★★★★)

On Romeo and Juliet:

"a fresh, fleet, blade-sharp revival" (The Telegraph ★★★★)

"...two hugely appealing performances from Karen Fishwick and Bally Gill as the star-crossed lovers. Together they convey the blinkered giddiness of the young couple’s infatuation, the arrow-slit of adolescence in which tomorrow morning seems an age away and no adult can possibly understand the depth of your pain." (The Stage ★★★★)

"...strong performances in Erica Whyman’s swift production" (The Guardian ★★★)

‘This hand shall never more come near thee with such friendship.' How long is forever? When the imprisoned Palamon and Arcite vow eternal friendship, they don’t expect that anything will come between them. But then from their cell window they see the beautiful Emilia, and their priorities take a sudden and violent turn. In this late romance, Fletcher and Shakespeare examine love in all its fluid and complex forms. Barrie Rutter, recipient of the 2003 Sam Wanamaker Award, directs his first play since stepping down as Artistic Director of Northern Broadsides. Inspired by the play’s Morris language and references, The Two Noble Kinsmen is set in pastoral ‘Merrie England’ and brought to life with original music composed by acclaimed folk musician Eliza Carthy, and dance choreographed by Ewan Wardrop.

Review

Running at a tight two hours 15 minutes, this tragicomedy still squeezes in a lot of Shakespearean tropes: a tyrant king, a last-minute death, and a young woman driven to madness by love...Barrie Rutter’s direction keeps the play together. Coupled with Jessica Worrall’s design, which leaves the grass-covered stage looking like an enchanted forest and the characters leaping between jewel-toned block colours and fringed dance costumes, the production is both lighthearted and light on its feet, with choreographer Ewan Wardrop’s work particularly standing out. Francesca Mills has great comic timing as the jailer’s daughter, as do Paul Stocker and Bryan Dick when they bounce off each other as Palamon and Arcite. (The Guardian)

The smash hit of Shakespeare’s early career, Titus Andronicus is one of the Bard’s most experimental works, a revenge tale of the utmost brutality that centers around the honored Roman general who fatally refuses to show mercy to the eldest son of Tamora, Queen of the Goths, whom he has defeated in war. Hailed as 'one of the darkest and most seminal productions in the Globe’s history' (Daily Telegraph), director Lucy Bailey’s staging of the Roman tragedy sees the great London theatre transformed into a temple of death, one in which swathes of black fabric coalesce with horrific violence and stand-out performances to create shatteringly powerful drama. Filmed in 2014, this revival of Lucy Bailey’s gory 2006 production of Shakespeare’s revenge tragedy had audiences fainting in the aisles. Shakespeare’s bloodiest play features scenes of rape, mutilation, murder and cannibalism.

REVIEWS:

"You leave the theatre feeling both harrowed to the marrow and disconcertingly elated." (The Daily Telegraph)

"Lucy Bailey's blackly comical production is the best I've seen." (The Times)

"Exceptional." (The Independent)

Stage director Kasper Holten’s 2014 production of Don Giovanni for the Royal Opera offers a glimpse inside the mind of one of opera’s most notorious seducers. With a spectacular revolving set by award-winning designer Es Devlin, ingenious video projections by Luke Halls, and an ‘ideal cast on world beating form’ (The Independent), this staging brings Mozart’s dazzling score to life, in all its wit, glamour, and darkness. With Roberto Tagliavini’s Leporello and Erwin Schrott’s Giovanni, we get a definitive pairing.

REVIEW

I saw this production’s first run in 2014 and its first revival, though not this 2019 third revival. It is a very fine production, Kasper Holten’s best achievement of his time at the Royal Opera House, and the filming does it justice.

Erwin Schrott gives a very fine performance as Don Giovanni, especially in relation to Leporello – oddly enough the key relationship in this opera of weak, imagined and imperilled relationships. Louise Alder as Zerlina gives us the most beautiful female singing in this performance. Daniel Behle’s Ottavio sings with particularly good line and tone in his tenderly lyrical music. Because this is the familiar mix of the Prague and Vienna versions, he gets both his Prague original solo and the Viennese one designed to replace it. Petros Magoulas’s Commendatore is vocally commanding when alive and even more so when dead.

Hartmut Haenchen’s old-school conducting, with broad tempi and plenty of weight, suits the conception of a demonic and doomed Don. The set blackens as dark forces gradually summon him to the infernal reckoning which he challenges to the last. This is essentially how the 19^th century saw the opera, and to that end Holten jettisons much of the scena ultima, the buffo ending when the survivors tell us what they each will do next and point the moral of the tale.

The extras are a diverting couple of short films, one of the director, conductor, designer and cast talking about the work and its setting, and one of Erwin Schrott preparing the title role.

--MusicWeb International (Roy Westbrook)

Shakespeare’s All’s Well That Ends Well centers on the tale of Helena’s quest to marry the man she loves, the rather unimpressed Bertram, who initially refuses her due to her lack of social standing. Aided by fellow conspirator Diana, Helena devises a fail-safe scheme to ensnare her man. The production, directed by John Dove, stars Sam Crane and Ellie Piercey as Bertram and Helena, and includes performances by James Garnon as troublemaker Parolles and Janie Dee as Bertram’s interfering mother, the Countess of Roussillon. With lavish staging and costume, the production is a triumph that, according to The Independent, ‘leaves the audience reeling with happiness by the end.’

Reviews

"With so much to praise, it is hard to prioritise, but here goes..." (The Independent)

"This is a good, clear, well-spoken production by John Dove of one of Shakespeare's most beguiling but least-loved plays." (The Guardian)

Capped by one of the most famous speeches ever written, Shakespeare’s Henry V recalls a truly great English victory. With comic sub-plots to be found among Henry’s soldiers, the production boasts some terrific performances – including Sam Cox as the ‘splendidly unhinged’ Pistol (The Daily Telegraph). In the title role is Jamie Parker, who ‘casts such a rapt spell that you feel the entire audience would rise up to march behind him’ (The Independent). Filmed in High Definition and true Surround Sound.

REVIEWS:

"...it works a treat, and the pacing is superb, helped by the inspired idea of giving the role of the Chorus to the birdlike Irish actress Brid Brennan – who flits about in the guise of a serving wench, like the slighted spirit of “Her-story”. Elsewhere, the Archbishop of Canterbury and Bishop of Ely (Paul Rider and Brendan O’Hea) entertainingly hatch plots while taking it in turns on the privy; and the Welshman Captain Fluellen (O’Hea again) is a garrulous hoot, at the vanguard of the play’s amused sense of Britain’s emergent, bickering nationhood. And Sam Cox makes for a splendidly unhinged Pistol, all wayward delivery and shifty body-language. In the end, though, the evening acts as a chastening reminder of what a country needs when it’s up against it." (The Daily Telegraph ★★★★)

"... another enjoyably sharp production from this resurgent venue — and we have artistic director Dominic Dromgoole to thank on both counts." (Evening Standard ★★★★)

"This production, directed by Dominic Dromgoole, is period costume, loyally done, blessed with a ruggedly decent Henry. Jamie Parker is handsome, calm, easy in his skin." (The Daily Mail ★★★★)

"Henry V was written for mass appeal, a patriotic celebration of what it is to be English for better or worse. Dromgoole’s production plays to these strengths and as such marks a cultural high point in the 2012 celebrations." (The Stage)