What is Shakespeare's Globe?
Shakespeare's Globe is a reconstruction of the Globe Theatre, where many of William Shakespeare's plays were first performed. Located on the south bank of the River Thames in London, it opened in 1997.
The original Globe was built in 1599 by Shakespeare's acting company, the Lord Chamberlain's Men. It burned down in 1613 when a cannon fired during a performance of Henry VIII set the thatched roof alight.
The reconstruction was the idea of American actor and director Sam Wanamaker, who campaigned for decades to rebuild the theater. He died in 1993, before it was completed.
A theater in the round
The Globe is an open-air theater with a thatched roof over the galleries. It was the first thatched building allowed in London since the Great Fire of 1666.
Audiences can stand in the yard as groundlings, just as people did in Shakespeare's time, for low-cost tickets.
The Globe stages plays from spring to autumn. An indoor candlelit theater, the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, hosts performances during the winter. Tours explain the history of Elizabethan theater.