Shakespeare's Globe Announces Its 2008 Season

Shakespeare's Globe Theatre, a theatre dedicated to reproducing Shakespeare in its original style - in an outdoor theatre with crowd noise and all - has announced its 2008 season.

"King Lear" starts April 23. It is the intensely powerful story of a king who goes into retirement, dividing his kingdom up amongst his daughters based on their praise of him. His two eldest daughters, who truly have no respect for him, heap praise upon him and receive great land, while his youngest and best-loved daughter refuses to participate and gets nothing. The bickering amongst the two eldest drives the king into madness. Considered the height of Shakespeare's poetic talent, "King Lear" is ferocious and unrelenting.

"A Midsummer Night's Dream" starts May 10. In it, Shakespeare goes beyond the love triangle and has two pairs of competing lovers whose love interests change because of the mingling of some playful fairies. When the mischievous fairy Puck gets involved in their affairs, as well as the affairs of a local acting group, total mischief ensues. While the attitude is playful, the poetry is nonetheless ingenious and passionate. Some of the greatest love poetry of all time can be found in "Midsummer."

"The Merry Wives of Windsor" starts June 8. With the popularity of "Henry IV," Shakespeare revived the beloved character Sir John Falstaff, a self-important, bombastic and sarcastic knight whose wordplay is some of the cleverest in the history of the English language. "Merry Wives" plays like a dirty comedy. It's lascivious to the core, and the laughter is endless. It may be one of Shakespeare's lesser known plays, but the characters are surely memorable. Christopher Luscombe, who directed "The Comedy of Errors" for the Globe in 2006, directs.

"The Frontline" starts July 6. Written by Che Walker, winner of the George Devine Award and regular playwright for the Royal Court, this dark comedy becomes a view of London from top to bottom as it intermixes the lives of multiple seedy and not-so-seedy characters, from drug dealers to hot dog sellers. A ton of themes emerge, from issues of empire all the way down to sexual fetishism. WARNING: "The Frontline" contains adult material and language.

"Timon of Athens" starts July 26. Timon is endlessly generous with his friends, unable to realize that they want him only as a cash cow. They take and take, but when the flow of money runs out, he turns back to them for help, only to be refused. This satire is a critique of selfishness and greed, and the human frailty that follows them around. Shakespeare is at his sharpest in his stabs on such foolishness. "Timon of Athens" is directed by Lucy Bailey and designed by William Dudley, remembered amongst Globe audiences for their amazingly popular "Titus Andronicus" in 2006.

"Liberty" starts August 31. The playwright, Glyn Maxwell, has long been considered one of England's best dramatists, and he shows why in this play about the French Revolution. With Robespierre in power and finding threats all over, political intrigue takes its place. Liberty is a story both of political drama and panic, of human fear and the clash between privacy and publicity.

"Footsbarn's Shakespeare Party," a mixture of theatre, magic and music celebrating Shakespeare's work, comes to the Globe for five performances from May 23-25.

Tickets can be purchased for any of the above shows through the Globe's website, at http://www.shakespeares-globe.org/.