As the Globe's 2012 season comes to a close and the all-male ‘original practices’ productions of Richard III and Twelfth Night make ready to open at the Apollo Theatre in November, next year's productions have been announced.
A theme of the supernatural links the three Shakespeare pieces that will form the core of the season—A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Tempest and Macbeth—and these will be presented together with three world premières.
The new works are The Lightning Child by Che Walker with music by Arthur Darvill, Blue Stockings by Jessica Swale and Gabriel by Samuel Adamson, which will feature double Classic BRIT Award winner English trumpet soloist Alison Balsom.
On tour the Globe will present Henry VI, Parts 1, 2 and 3, which will also play London during the summer, and small-scale tours of King Lear and The Taming of the Shrew that will also visit.
Three international companies which participated in Globe to Globe will return, each giving a limited number of performances: these are the Isango Ensemble from South Africa (Venus and Adonis), the Marjanishvili Theatre from Georgia (As You Like It) and the Belarus Free Theatre (King Lear). Finally, Footsbarn will present Indian Tempest.
Public booking for the new season will open on 11 February 2013.