My first trip to the Globe's Summer 2015 season coincides with the surprise announcement of Emma Rice as its next Artistic Director. It'll be interesting to see if she continues what has become one of the trademarks of the Dominic Dromgoole era: The "tiny" touring productions of some of Shakespeare's most popular plays, that see a handful of actor-musicians play all the roles. Last year's great
Much Ado About Nothing is due back in a couple of months' time, but first the new production, and as comedy and tragedy alternate on these tours, it's the turn of
Romeo & Juliet. Dromgoole and Tim Hoare direct a cast of eight actors plus two musician/stage hands, and the usual rustic look (designs by Andrew D Edwards) has a suitably Italian flavour in this story of fair Verona, where for generations the Montague and Capulet families have been at each other's throats, the original cause forgotten. A friar sees a way to end the feud - he succeeds, but not in the way he'd envisaged.
