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A summer of Shakespeare is heading to York
The city will host Europe's first ever pop-up Shakespeare Theatre.
The Shakespeare Rose Theatre has officially launched in York. Europe’s first ever pop-up Shakespeare Theatre will offer punters a designated summer programme next year.
Based on the London Rose Playhouse built in 1587, 12 years ahead of The Globe, Shakespeare Rose Theatre will present a historic 13-sided design of a 16th century theatre. It will offer 600 seats on three tiered balconies around an open-roofed courtyard, and standing room for 350.
The ten week season will host four of Shakespeare’s works, performed by two companies. The theatre will welcome Macbeth, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Romeo and Juliet, and Richard III.
Together they cover a Shakespeare tragedy, comedy, love story, and history respectively.
The season is set to begin on Monday 25 June 2018, and will run through until Sunday 2 September 2018.
The performances will be directed by two of the UK’s leading theatre directors, Lindsay Posner and Damien Cruden. Posner has worked on productions at the Royal Court and The Old Vic, as well as with the Royal Shakespeare Company. She will direct Romeo and Juliet and Richard III.
Cruden has been the Artistic Director of York Theatre Royal for two decades, and will direct A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Macbeth.
The theatre will be flanked by Shakespeare’s Village, allowing free access to wagon performances and other forms of Elizabethan entertainment. There will be food and drink housed in oak-framed and reed-thatched buildings.
The original Rose Theatre was built in 1587 on the south bank of the River Thames in London.
Tickets for all four plays are available now through Ticketmaster.co.uk.
