Youths That Thunder

29 October – 6.30 PM

Sam Wanamaker Playhouse

Price: £5.00 Book Now

Book Now

Discover two scholars who are shaping the next generation of early modern race studies.

Dr Eli Cumings (King’s College London) and Dr Lydia Valentine (Shakespeare’s Globe) present new research for anyone curious about Shakespeare, race, and performance.

‘These are the youths that thunder at a playhouse…’
Henry VIII, Act IV, scene 4

This event is part of the Shakespeare and Race Festival 2026.

DETAILS

TICKETS
£5

Shakespeare’s Globe is a registered charity. Ticket fees contribute to operational costs and support our research events. If cost presents a barrier, please contact [email protected]. We are committed to ensuring these events remain accessible to all.

This event takes place on-site in the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse

Running time 1 hour 10 minutes

Terms and conditions

Part of Shakespeare and Race Festival

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Access

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Dr Eli Cumings

Dr Lydia Valentine

Staging the Past, Contesting the Future: Macbeth in Colonial Zimbabwe (Dr Eli Cumings)

Focussing on a 1961 production of Macbeth staged in colonial Zimbabwe, Eli Cumings explores how Shakespearean performance is, and has been, implicated in processes of history-making. Attentive to the political and social dynamics of this particular production, she considers how performance might rewrite the past, and how it might imagine new futures.

Bastardizing Race: Illegitimacy and Racial Mixing in The Winter’s Tale (Dr Lydia Valentine)

Shakespeare’s ‘bastard’ characters have long been recognised as complicated outsiders; figures associated with contamination, corruption and impurity. Focusing on The Winter’s Tale, this talk will explore the racial significance of bastardy in early modern England, arguing that bastardy is a concept that refers both to illegitimacy and to racial mixing. How did race inform which kinds of kinship were recognised as ‘legitimate’?

Samurai Othello: Sharing & Discussion. Shakespeare & Race Festival. A person wearing a red garment plays the drums.

Samurai Othello: Sharing and Discussion

20 October

Shakespeare meets Samurai as New Earth Theatre and Shakespeare's Globe present a work-in-progress sharing and panel discussion of Othello, set in medieval Japan.

Shakespeare and Race

Info & Tickets

Shakespeare and Windrush

22 October

A roundtable discussion bringing together creatives, historians and literary scholars to celebrate the contributions of the British Caribbean community to literature, theatre and performance. 

Shakespeare and Race

Info & Tickets

Summer 2026 imagine together. An actor wearing green kneels down in front of standing audience members who watch on. In the background there are audience members sitting in wooden seating galleries.

Youths That Thunder

DETAILS

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SPEAKERS & CONTENT

Dr Eli Cumings

Dr Lydia Valentine

MORE EVENTS

Samurai Othello: Sharing and Discussion

Shakespeare and Windrush

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