The Globe Theater Is Streaming Free Shakespeare Plays Through June
Shakespeare’s Globe, the (reconstruction of the) London theater where Shakespeare first staged his plays more than four hundred years ago, is streaming many of its plays for free this spring. Instead of (or in addition to) rewatching your favorite sitcoms, you can watch some of the best theatrical performances for Shakespeare’s classics.
Each of the free plays, screened on YouTube, shows for two weeks before the next play begins. Through tonight, April 19, you can watch the 2018 performance of Hamlet. Tomorrow, Romeo & Juliet (the 2009 version) begins, continuing through May 3.
Scheduled after that are The Two Noble Kinsmen (2018), The Winter’s Tale (2018), The Merry Wives of Windsor (2019), and A Midsummer Night’s Dream (2013). You can find the full schedule of upcoming free, streamed performances here.
The theater also has its own paid video-on-demand platform, called Globe Player. It includes 130 filmed performances, which you can purchase to watch yourself or as a gift for a friend.
Sheakspeare’s Globe closed on March 18 due to the Covid-19 pandemic. In addition to its YouTube screenings, it will also launch a series called Love in Isolation, in which artists associated with the theater, will “share some of the greatest words ever written by Shakespeare from their places of solitude and sanctuary.”