The Shakespeare’s Globe has announced details of its 2017 winter season at the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, titled The Winter Selection.
Running from the 20th October until the 21st April 2018, The Winter Selection programme will include a new musical, a new play by Anders Lustgarten as well as a reimagining of John Dryden’s Restoration drama Aureng-zebe.
The new season at the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse will open with Romantics Anonymous (20th October-6th January 2018), directed by Emma Rice. This new musical features lyrics by Christopher Dimond, and music by Michael Kooman as well as a book by Emma Rice.
Angélique makes beautiful chocolates, carefully infused with all the emotion that seems to overwhelm her in daily life. Jean-René runs a chocolate factory that is running out of steam, rather like his own existence. Both seek help from the usual sources: Jean-René favours self-help tapes and Angélique joins a support group, Les Émotifs Anonymes.
Romantics Anonymous is an unusual and tender love story in which the obstacles to happiness are not the usual external barriers, but those sneaky little ones we know all too intimately: the ones within.
This will be followed by a new play by Anders Lustgarten, titled The Secret Theatre (16th November- 16th December). Directed by Matthew Dunster, it is a tale of blackmail, double -crossing and espionage.
Spymaster Sir Francis Walsingham oversees a vast surveillance network from the heart of Elizabeth I’s court. As the nation’s relationship with Europe deteriorates and civil unrest grows, Walsingham adopts ever more extreme tactics to keep his queen and country safe. But does he risk losing control of the apparatus he has created and destroying the lives of those closest to him? And can such safety ever be achieved?
Meanwhile, over the Christmas period, the playhouse will welcome Meow Meow who will bring her show Apocalypse Meow: Crisis is Born to the venue from the 20th to the 31st December.
2018 will feature productions of All’s Well That Ends Well (11th January-3rd March), The Captive Queen (2nd February-4th March), Vivaldi’s Four Seasons (9th March-21st April) and The Little Matchgirl (27th March-21st April).
Artistic Director of the Shakespeare’s Globe Emma Rice said: “I’ve always seen the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse as a little box of treats, encouraging the primal need to tell and hear stories and inviting tales and magic to unfurl beneath the flicker of the candles. For my final season as Artistic Director at the Globe, I knew I wanted to present the most delicious, unique and beautiful box of delights.”
For more information about The Winter selection programme and to book tickets visit: http://www.shakespearesglobe.com/