Shakespeare's Globe Announces 2009 Theatre Season

Shakespeare's Globe announced its 2009 theatre season, which opens on Shakespeare's birthday, 23 April, and goes under the overall title of Young Hearts. The Shakespeare plays will be Romeo and Juliet, As You Like It, Troilus and Cressida and a revival of Dominic Dromgoole's 2007 production of Love's Labour's Lost, prior to embarking upon a North American tour in the autumn.

The 2009 theatre season will also include a range of new work including the Globe's first excursion into full-scale Greek drama in a new version of Euripedes' Helen by Frank McGuinness; A New World, marking the 200th anniversary of the death of Thomas Paine, by Trevor Griffiths and the return of Ché Walker's explosive, panoramic and funny tale of contemporary London life, The Frontline.

In addition to its main stage programme, Shakespeare's Globe will continue its commitment to touring. During summer 2009, two new small-scale productions - The Comedy of Errors and A Midsummer Night's Dream - will visit beautiful outdoor venues across the UK, reviving The Old Globe principle of outdoor playing.

This announcement follows the success of the Globe's 2008 theatre season, which attracted over 330,000 theatre-goers over the course of 253 performances, grossing more than £5.3 million in ticket sales and averaging 83% capacity attendance across the entire season. Over the course of summer 2008, 120 actors, forty musicians and fifty other creative staff worked together in five companies to present eight different shows, at a venue that still operates without public subsidy.

Artistic Director Dominic Dromgoole commented: "At Shakespeare's Globe, each new performance feels like a new burst of energy and a new beginning. The 2009 season of Young Hearts celebrates the heedless joy of youth, a love of life and the enduring passion of our audiences."

Ché Walker's frank and funny new play The Frontline proved to be a bit hit during summer 2008, bringing a fresh energy and a new audience to the Globe. Twenty three actors overlap in this fast-paced, exuberant tale, bringing modern Camden onto the Globe stage.

Shakespeare's Globe makes its first excursion into full-scale Greek drama with a version of Euripides' Helen by Frank McGuinness (Someone Who'll Watch Over Me). The renowned playwright follows his acclaimed version of Oedipus at The National Theatre with a funny and exciting treatment of Euripides' strange, comic, fairy-tale-like romance.

The third new play of the season will be Trevor Griffiths' (Comedians, Reds) eagerly anticipated play about the British revolutionary Thomas Paine - A New World. This moving and epic story charts the life and loves of the author of The Rights of Man with songs, music and the huge carnival spirit of a world turned upside down.

Public booking for the season opens on 14 February 2009, when tickets will be available through the box office: 020 7401 9919 / 020 7087 7398 or online: www.shakespeares-globe.org. Priority booking for the Friends of Shakespeare's Globe opens in January 2009.