Via Shakespeare's Globe
It might have taken the best part of 400 years, but Shakespeare’s Globe theatre has entered the digital age. Anyone bored of the usual boxsets can tune into the theatre’s YouTube channel, which is currently showing a 2009 performance of Romeo and Juliet.
It’ll be available to watch until the end of May, after which the Globe will be showing several more classics – including The Winter’s Tale and A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Each performance will be available to stream for two weeks.
If that’s not enough 16th-century drama for you, the theatre also has the Globe Player – an on-demand service with 130 plays that you can rent or buy.
While the building is currently closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, theatre-buffs can get their fix with a tour of the recreated Elizabethan theatre, based on the 1599 structure where Shakespeare staged his most famous works.
Completed in 1997, the modern Globe is considered faithful to the original – which burned down a number of times and was ultimately demolished – and was built using historical references, and plans from other contemporaneous Tudor theatres. Unlike the original, however, the modern Globe only holds 1,400 spectators compared to the 3,000 that crammed into the theatre The Bard’s time.
