Read Not Dead

Since 1995, our Read Not Dead series has staged “performances with scripts” of plays written between 1576 and 1642 by Shakespeare’s contemporaries, offering an adventure for actors and audiences alike.

This summer, Globe Education brings you some of the most farcical and fantastical plays of the period!

The Honourable History of Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay

by Robert Greene
Sunday 9 June, 3pm

Greene’s play, perhaps written as a comic counterpart to Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus, is by turns anarchic, hilarious and charming – and, of course, requires a dragon, a magic mirror, a golden tree and a giant brazen head.

No Wit, No Help like a Woman’s!

by Thomas Middleton
Sunday 4 August, 3pm

Middleton’s farcical comedy involves fake marriages, fake deaths and incest…almost. All the farcical riddles of the play are resolved by the cunning of Mistress Low-Water, and the knowledge held by Lady Twilight and Lady Goldenfleece.

The Birth of Merlin, Or, The Child Hath Found his Father

by William Rowley
Sunday 15 September, 3pm

Rowley’s fantastical, shamelessly entertaining play is drawn from mythical British history. Its plot portrays political intrigue and division between two British princes in love with the princess of Britain’s enemies, the Saxons, the struggle of a nobleman’s daughter to pursue a religious vocation in the face of pressures to marry, and the search of a pregnant woman and her brother for the father of her unborn child. Don’t miss the chance to see Merlin battle it out with his Devil-father. 

The Old Wives’ Tale

By George Peele
Sunday 6 October

Three men lost deep in the woods find more than they bargained for when they are sheltered by a hostess with a penchant for fairy stories. Her tales of fantasy take shape before the men’s eyes, as a brothers’ quest to rescue their sister from a malevolent magician draws knights, braggarts, honour- bound ghosts and clowns to the stage in Peele’s magically “conceited comedy”.

Venue

Sackler Studios, Shakespeares Globe
Click here for directions

Tickets

£10 (£8 FoSG/concs/students)

 

BOOK ONLINE

 

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Rarely Played Seminars

Learn more about each of these plays with our inspiring and engaging seminar introductions prior to our Read Not Dead performances. 

TIME

12.00 – 2.00pm

VENUE

Sackler Studios, Shakespeare’s Globe
Click here for directions

TICKETS

£15 (£13 FoSG/concs/students)
Includes ticket to Read Not Dead performance. 

 

BOOK ONLINE