Shakespeare Globe

Read Not Dead

Globe Education began its series of stage readings of plays in 1994. Since then audiences have been able to see and hear over 150 plays written between 1567 and 1642 by Shakespeare's contemporaries. These 'performances with scripts' are staged by professional actors and directors.

The Jew of Venice

by George Granville
Sunday 21 February

Globe Education's Read Not Dead project joins forces with the Theatre Royal Bury St Edmunds Restoring the Repertoire programme in producing a Georgian adaptation of a Shakespeare play.

Granville's version of The Merchant of Venice held the stage for forty years after its triumphant production in 1701 with Thomas Betterton as Bassanio.

Performed by the cast of the Theatre Royal's production of The Merchant of Venice, this is a fascinating game of spot the difference, giving a unique insight into the changing tastes of audiences and playwrights.

Theatre Royal Bury St Edmunds »

Time: 5pm
Venue: Theatre Royal Bury St Edmunds, Westgate Street, Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk IP33 1QR
Tickets: £7

The following staged readings complement the 2010 Theatre Season.

Time: 3pm
Venue: Nancy W Knowles Lecture Theatre, Shakespeare's Globe
Tickets: £8 (£5 FoSG/concs/students)

King Henry IV

With the humours of Sir John Falstaff. A tragicomedy.
by Thomas Betterton (1700)
Sunday 9 May

More than 100 years after the premiere of Shakespeare’s Henry IV Part 1, Thomas Betterton, generally recognised as the greatest English actor between Burbage and Garrick, decided to produce his very own adaptation of the play. Streamlining the historical action and focusing on Sir John Falstaff’s shenanigans instead, Betterton not only heightened the play’s inherent humour, but also created a great role for himself. Did Betterton better Shakespeare? See for yourself!

2010 Theatre Season production of Henry IV Part 1

Virtue Betrayed

(or Anna Bullen)
by John Banks (1682)
Sunday 18 July

Picking up where Shakespeare’s Henry VIII left off, John Banks effectively scrutinises Henry’s reign by concentrating on the fate and external pressures imposed on Anne Boleyn. Featuring a rampant king, Machiavellian schemers and an eloquent three-year-old toddler, Virtue Betrayed was successfully staged for over 50 years alongside Shakespeare’s work. This year, both plays are reunited at Shakespeare’s Globe.

2010 Theatre Season production of Henry VIII

The Sea Voyage

by John Fletcher and Philip Massinger
Sunday 15 August

The Sea Voyage begins with a storm straight from The Tempest, taking us to a pair of islands, one barren, one lush – the former home to several shipwrecked Europeans, the latter the turf of a tribe of Amazons, who are dreaming lustfully about men when our hero Albert swims ashore...

The Chances

by John Fletcher
Sunday 19 September

Spaniard Don John, wandering Bologna’s streets in the dusk with his friend Don Frederick, is abruptly handed a bundle by a waiting-woman. He opens it, expecting money or jewels ... and finds he is quite literally holding the baby. This Jacobean tour-de-force unrolls a glorious plot of revenge, farce, beautiful women, magic – and that mystery baby.

Back to Top

---