KINGS & ROGUES
by William Shakespeare

KINGS & ROGUES

Shakespeare – something of a king and much of a rogue himself – understood that the world needs rogues, just as it needs kings. It needs the wildness, warmth and virtue of rogues, to balance against the paranoia, greed and violence of kings; just as it needs the strength of kings, to counteract the confusion of rogues.
This season we look at some of Shakespeare's most regal rogues and some of his most roguish kings. Lord of all misrule is Falstaff, celebrated in three of our plays. The two parts of Henry IV are close to being Shakespeare's greatest achievement, masterpieces of story-telling and realism, which encompass all of England's past, present and future in their journey from pub to palace, from Cotswold orchard to blood-stained battlefield. The Merry Wives of Windsor, a revival of our great hit of 2008, celebrates Falstaff in a more domesticated environment, joyously satirising the middle class mores of Windsor.
The two Henry IV plays are premieres at the new Globe, as is Henry VIII, a great blend of pageantry and real-politik, written at the end of Shakespeare's career, and showing all his formidable understanding of the passions and pettiness of those in power.
We are pairing this with a new play from Howard Brenton, one of our greatest dramatists, whose In Extremis was such a delight here. His play takes a fresh look at that evergreen female icon – Anne Boleyn.
We are opening the season with Macbeth, Shakespeare's most terrifying portrait of humanity gone sour. And the season will finish with Bedlam, a play by one of our finest young writers, Nell Leyshon, which dives into the great gin epidemic of the eighteenth century. Please do also catch one or both of our tours either on their brief visits to the Globe, or on their travels.
And what better place than the Globe to celebrate both kings and rogues. Our building continues to embrace the most democratic audience in the world; the local Southwark school kid who has acted on stage, beside the elderly South Korean who has dreamt of it all her life; the thief beside the judge; the bishop beside the punk; each a rogue and a king in their own way. All held in the wooden embrace of the Globe.

23 April - 3 October 2010

THEATRE & TICKETS

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Macbeth

When three witches tell the general Macbeth that he is destined to occupy the throne of Scotland, he and his wife choose to become the instruments of their fate and to kill the first man to stand in their path, the virtuous King Duncan. But to maintain his position, Macbeth must keep on killing – at first Banquo, his old comrade-in-arms; and later, as the atmosphere of guilt and paranoia thickens, anyone who seems a threat to the tyrant and his fear.

From its first moments to the last fulfilment of the witches' prophecy, Shakespeare's gripping account of the psychological experience of murder enthralls the imagination. In scenes of nightmarish vividness and language of haunting power, Macbeth represents the profoundest engagement with the forces of evil in all drama.

Lucy Bailey’s previous work at Shakespeare’s Globe includes thrilling productions of Titus Andronicus and Timon of Athens.

Elliot Cowan recently played Stanley Kowalski in A Streetcar Named Desire (Donmar), and his screen credits include Mr Darcy in Lost in Austen (ITV).

23 April – 27 June 2010

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HENRY VIII
by William Shakespeare

Henry VIII

The Tudor Court is locked in a power struggle between its nobles and the Machiavellian Cardinal Wolsey, the King's first minister and the most conspicuous symbol of Catholic power in the land. Wolsey's ambition knows no bounds and when his chief ally, Queen Katherine, interferes in the King's romance with Ann Bullen, he brings gigantic ruin upon himself, the Queen and centuries of English obedience to Rome.

Famous in its own day as Shakespeare's most sumptuous and spectacular play, Henry VIII is a gorgeous pageant of masques and royal ceremony; a blaze of fireworks, cannonfire, red satin and cloth-of-gold. But within the passages of grandeur works the mind of the mature Shakespeare: psychological and political insight, language of great depth and power and, in the figures of Wolsey and Katherine, two of his most vivid and memorable characters.
Dominic Rowan was recently in The Misanthrope in the West End, and previously played Touchstone in As You Like It at Shakespeare’s Globe in 2010.

15 May – 21 August 2010

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Henry IV Part 1

Prince Hal, son of Henry IV, seems to be squandering his life among the whores, boozers and petty rogues of Eastcheap. And the greatest of these rogues is the fat knight, Sir John Falstaff, a liar, glutton, lecher, cheat, braggart, fool and sponger who also possesses wit, warmth, intelligence and a gigantic sense of fun. But beside these scenes of glorious misrule gathers a nationwide rebellion led by the Duke of Northumberland and his charismatic son, Hotspur.

The first instalment of Shakespeare's gripping account of the rise of Hal from idle barfly to monarch-in-waiting combines compelling power politics with the hilarious antics of Falstaff, Shakespeare's greatest comic creation.
Roger Allam was recently in La Cage aux Folles in the West End, and won the 2002 Olivier Award for Privates on Parade at the Donmar.

6 June – 2 October 2010

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Henry IV Part 2

Hotspur is dead and Prince Hal has proved his mettle on the battlefield, but Henry IV lies dying and the rebels, though scattered, show no sign of declaring their allegiance to the Crown. Even Falstaff is forced out of the taverns to raise a scratch militia in the country. But will his attachment to the rising Hal be rewarded with promotion and the life of ease he feels sure he deserves?

At least the equal of Part 1, Henry IV Part 2 includes some of the greatest moments in Shakespeare: the deathbed scene of the old King, when Hal contemplates the crown; the reunion of Falstaff with his old boon companion, Justice Shallow; and Hal's devastating rejection of Falstaff himself.
Roger Allam was recently in La Cage aux Folles in the West End, and won the 2002 Olivier Award for Privates on Parade at the Donmar.

3 July – 3 October 2010

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Anne Boleyn

A celebration of a great English heroine, Anne Boleyn dramatises the life and legacy of Henry VIII’s notorious second wife. Anne Boleyn is traditionally seen either as a pawn manipulated by an ambitious father and his friends into the King’s bed, or as a sexually licentious predator, even a witch.

But Brenton puts a very different Anne – and her ghost – on the Globe stage. Witty and confident in her sexuality, she takes on the vicious world of Tudor Court politics. She is in love with Henry but also in love with the most dangerous ideas of her day. Conspiring with the exiled William Tyndale, the great translator of the Bible who was to be burnt as a heretic, Anne plots to make England Protestant, forever.

Award-winning playwright Howard Brenton’s previous work includes In Extremis at Shakespeare's Globe (2006 and 2007).

24 July – 21 August 2010

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