THE ANIMALS COME TO THE TABLE to Make World Premiere at Shakespeare's Globe
Timberlake Wertenbaker's new play will run at the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse alongside MAKEBETH.
Shakespeare's Globe has announced the premiere of Timberlake Wertenbaker's (Our Country's Good) new play The Animals Come to the Table as part of the 2026-27 Winter Season for the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse. The full 2026-27 Winter Season will be announced soon. Submissions are also now open for the 2026 Climate Playwriting Prize in partnership with Climate Spring and Fern Culture, with the judges announced today. A new co-production with Cardboard Adventures will also bring their MakeBeth tour to the Globe as part of their UK tour.
The Animals Come to the Table by Timberlake Wertenbaker will play in the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse from 11 December 2026 – 24 January 2027.
Shakespeare's Globe, Climate Spring, and Fern Culture announce judges for 2026 Climate Playwriting Prize, as submissions open on Tuesday 23 June. The judges include Sir Lenny Henry, Lucy Kirkwood, NANCY MEDINA, Professor Pablo Mukherjee, Amir Nizar Zuabi, Lucy Stone, and Michelle Terry.
Globe Associate Artist Hannah Khalil will bring Cardboard Adventures' MakeBeth tour to the Globe as part of its UK Tour for young people and families, running from 24 October – 1 November.
Shakespeare's Globe Artistic Director Michelle Terry says: “Timberlake Wertenbaker is one of our greatest living playwrights. When she writes a new play, you take notice and we must certainly take notice of this one, and the questions it raises about nature, human nature, and our shared future. We are so proud to premiere this vital play by this most extraordinary of playwrights in one of the greatest playhouses in the world. And we are equally proud to be hosting the incredible MakeBeth in an adaptation by Globe Associate Artist and another of our sublime playwrights Hannah Khalil co-conceived by her, the inimitable designer Sam Wilde and director Ian Nicholson. This interactive craft-along retelling for families has been years in the making, and we are thrilled that it is finally here! And we are so excited to share the most incredible line of judges for our inaugural Climate Playwriting Prize. Theatre is fundamentally a human endeavour; an act of collaboration, and congregation, a moment in time in which strangers from all walks of life gather together around a story. We are so proud of this catalogue of climate storytelling and storytellers who continue to collectively deploy one of our most powerful agents for change: our imagination.”
The Animals Come to the Table runs from 1 December 2026 – 24 January 2027 in the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse. Originally conceived as part of Burnt at the Stake, or the Whole of the Truth (2023) where playwrights were invited to share new work anonymously, The Animals Come to the Table marks the latest in a new writing lineage at the Shakespeare's Globe, following on from Hakawatis: Women of the Arabian Nights (2022), Princess Essex (2024), Pinocchio (2025), and Deep Azure (2026). By the candlelight of the Playhouse, animals summon humanity to the negotiating table. Waiting for them are an army of voices from the natural world demanding an end to exploitation and ecological destruction. Timberlake Wertenbaker is one of the UK's leading playwrights whose work is studied and performed worldwide. Her previous work includes Our Country's Good, Jefferson's Garden, The Love of the Nightingale and Little Brother. Bringing together politics, wit, philosophy and mischief, this new work is an audacious experiment of stepping into someone else's shoes.
Playwright Timberlake Wertenbaker says: “I believe theatre is the perfect place to explore complex subjects where the answers aren't easy and we can see different points of view. The more I learned about animal communication the more fascinated I was by what the animals might have to say to us and the Playhouse is such a mysterious and magical space, I felt anything could happen there.”
Submissions are also now open for the 2026 Climate Playwriting Prize in partnership with Climate Spring and Fern Culture, and today the judges are announced as Sir Lenny Henry, Lucy Kirkwood, NANCY MEDINA, Professor Pablo Mukherjee, Amir Nizar Zuabi, Lucy Stone, and Michelle Terry.
The Climate Playwriting Prize aims to empower the theatre industry into new climate conversations, drawing on the skills of storytellers and artists to inspire societal shifts towards a restorative relationship with nature. The winning playwright will receive £15,000 and dramaturgical support to develop the play. Submissions close on 1 September 2026, with winners announced in Autumn 2026.
Sir Lenny Henry says: “I'm a firm believer that stories can help us make sense of the times we're living through. Climate change can sometimes feel overwhelming, but playwrights have a gift for finding the human stories inside the biggest issues. That's what excites me about this prize. I can't wait to discover writers who can make us laugh, think, feel and perhaps even imagine a different future.”
Lucy Kirkwood says: “I am honoured to be asked to be one of the judges on the Climate Playwriting Prize. I hope the prize will deepen and galvanize our conversation about how we can keep the planet we live on habitable for human beings. Theatre is a vital space through which we can explore and illuminate the powerful forces that get in our way when we try to look climate change in the face, whether those forces are inside us, or in the corporate realm. I hope to see plays that are bold, electrifying, that throw down a gauntlet and dare us to take it up.”
The Climate Playwriting Prize is being delivered in association with partner organisations Chichester Festival Theatre, Exeter Northcott Theatre, Leeds Playhouse, Lyric Theatre Belfast, Mercury Theatre Colchester, New Earth Theatre, Pentabus Theatre, and tiata fahodzi. Climate storytelling workshops delivered by the Globe, Fern Culture, and freelance playwrights which will feed into the award's reading and judging process have begun to be hosted since the announcement of the inaugural prize earlier this year.
MakeBeth will run at the Globe from 24 October – 1 November as part of the UK Tour, transforming Shakespeare's darkest tragedy into a joyful, laugh-out-loud cardboard adventure. MakeBeth is created in partnership with Globe Associate Artist and writer Hannah Khalil (The Fir Tree, Hakawatis), designer Sam Wilde (The Fir Tree and founder of Cardboard Adventures), and director Ian Nicholson (Othello, Unicorn Theatre). Only using cardboard recycled from each theatre venue, a set will be built and taken apart during the show; audiences will be invited to make props needed along the way through the twists and turns of the Scottish play in an exciting, sustainable hour of storytelling for all ages. MakeBeth is created by Cardboard Adventures and Shakespeare's Globe, in partnership with Chichester Festival Theatre and Leeds Playhouse, continuing a shared commitment to making classic stories accessible, imaginative and fun for new generations.
Hannah Khalil says: “I am absolutely thrilled that Makebeth is coming to Shakespeare's Globe. Designer, and brains behind Cardboard Adventures, Sam Wilde and I worked together on The Fir Tree at the Globe a few years ago and it's a joy to be collaborating with him again on another sustainable family show. Director Ian Nicholson and the talented cast have made something magical. Audiences in schools and theatres across the country have already been getting crafty for this joyous piece, now it's the Globe audience's turn and they are in for a treat!”
