WHEN the world-renowned Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre performs at The Georgian Theatre Royal next month, the audience will be able to choose which play it sees just before the curtain goes up.

In Shakespeare’s day, when a company went on tour, the actors would juggle a variety of roles in three or four plays from their extensive repertoire. When they arrived at a household the most important person present would decide on the choice of play. Following this tradition, the Globe Theatre is sending out a company of eight talented actors who will offer three plays to the most powerful person in the household which in modern times is the audience.

This is the scenario that is being offered to audiences on the Globe’s national and international Summer 2018 tour which will be at The Georgian Theatre Royal in Richmond from Thursday 5 to Sunday 8 July – one of only two venues in the North of England included in the tour.

When they arrive for the performance the audience will be asked to decide between three Shakespeare classics – The Merchant of Venice, The Taming of the Shrew and Twelfth Night. The show will be chosen by the loudest applause as the plays are read out.

Michelle Terry, Artistic Director of Shakespeare’s Globe, said: “It’s experimental, it’s experiential, it’s Shakespearean, it’s shared, and it’s at the heart of all that we do.”

Director of the touring production, Brendan O’Hea, added: this “excites me beyond measure. And I’m relishing the opportunity to direct three of Shakespeare’s most popular plays in a unique and unpredictable presentation.”

The experiment certainly seems to be paying off and a recently published review of the voter’s choice Twelfth Night in The Stage said: “The democratisation of the experience was so fresh and liberating that it made for a wholly memorable evening.”

The cast comprises: Luke Brady, Steffan Cennydd, Cynthia Emeagi, Sarah Finigan, Colm Gormley, Russell Layton, Rhiamma McGreevy and Jacqueline Phillips.

  • Shakespeare's Globe Theatre, Richmond, Georgian Theatre, 5-8 July. Tickets are priced from £11 to £26 and are available from the Theatre’s Box Office on 01748-825252 or online at www.georgiantheatreroyal.co.uk