We are delighted to announce that Shakespeare's Globe on Tour is coming to West Horsley Place this May, their first-ever performance in Surrey, one of only 10 venues they will perform at across the UK and kicking off their 2020 tour.

The 2020 tour will present a trio of plays that reflect on spaces outside the cities and courts. The Tempest, As You Like It and A Midsummer Night's Dream all explore the freedom, and sometimes frustration that comes with having new experiences in unfamiliar and unstructured places. These are spaces where anything can happen; where mysterious events occur, where the imagination can run riot and where you hide your true identity. 

All these plays explore humankind's relationship with Mother Nature- her power, her magic, her nourishment, her pain, her rage, and her great potential for abundance and transformation. 

What makes this visit from one of the UK's most acclaimed theatre companies and Elizabethan theatre specialists even more special is its symmetry with the history of West Horsley Place. In 1559 the young Queen Elizabeth I herself had a temporary theatre built in the gardens here and enjoyed theatrical performances, just as we will 461 years later. Read more about this remarkable festival of revels here. 

A small but very talented ensemble of 8 actors will tackle lots of roles in multiple plays, following the traditions of an Elizabethan theatre ensemble, where they would learn all of Shakespeare's plays, play them to the Globe audience, and then set out on tour with the favourite 4 or 5. The ensemble will transform themselves into a whole world of characters, playing musical instruments to bring the production to life and engage with the audience. 

All three plays will be performed in the Crinkle-Crankle Garden at West Horsley Place. As You Like It will be performed for free to an invited audience including local schools, charities community groups. The Tempest and A Midsummer Night's dream will be open to the public with tickets available to book below:

BOOK NOW: The Tempest 7pm 14th May

BOOK NOW: A Midsummer Night's Dream 7pm 15th May

About the Globe

Shakespeare’s Globe is a reconstructed open-air theatre on London’s Bankside, founded by the pioneering American actor and director Sam Wanamaker and dedicated to the exploration of Shakespearean, Elizabethan, Jacobean, and contemporary theatre. Through an ambitious and lively theatre season, a dynamic and varied education program and a rich and interesting exhibition, the Globe has become a significant part of the national and international theatre landscape. Under the Globe’s prior artistic directors, Mark Rylance, Dominic Dromgoole, Emma Rice, and the current Artistic Director, Michelle Terry, the theatre has worked its way through Shakespeare’s canon, providing a huge wealth of insight into each play when it is produced afresh within the architecture for which Shakespeare originally wrote. In 2014, Shakespeare’s Globe presented its newly constructed Sam Wanamaker Playhouse – an archetype of a Jacobean indoor theatre, completely unique amongst London venues and enabling the Globe to present theatre productions all year round. In 2016, the Globe celebrated the 400^th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death, welcoming President Barack Obama, and seeing the return of the two-year world tour of Hamlet, during which the company travelled over 300,000 km, playing 293 performances at 202 venues in 197 countries, covering almost every country on earth.  The Globe also created The Complete Walk, a series of short films, featuring scenes from every one of Shakespeare’s plays. The series, which was screened for free along the bank of the Thames, featured some of the UK’s finest actors and included footage shot in the real locations of the plays, from Athens to the Ardennes, Vienna to Verona, Towton to the Tower of London.

‘It is Shakespearian theatre at its best’
The Oxford Times (On The Comedy of Errors)

‘Uses the close connection this theatre creates between stage and audience to great advantage.’
British Theatre Guide (On Pericles)

‘Vigorous, playful and fun with a few twists and quirks that charm’
The Reviews Hub (On Twelfth Night)

★★★★★

‘An exhilarating theatrical experience.’

The Upcoming (2019 Tour)