Winter Season 2025/26 at Shakespeare’s Globe:

Last Updated on November 10, 2025

Dreams in the Dark

It begins, as so many of Shakespeare’s stories do, in the dark. The Thames breathes mist across Bankside, while inside the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, hundreds of candles are kindled into life. The winter of 2025–26 at Shakespeare’s Globe glimmers with transformation, imagination, and love in all its strange forms.

The Sam Wanamaker Playhouse is the Globe’s indoor counterpart: a jewel box of oak and candlelight built in 2014 as a reimagining of a Jacobean theatre. Where the Globe opens to the sky, the Playhouse glows from within. Together, the two venues complete a single theatrical vision.

This winter’s programme spans both stages – two very different worlds: the intimate, golden light of the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, and the open-air sweep of the Globe Theatre itself. Between them, they promise a journey through passion, poetry, and possibility – from a bilingual Romeo and Juliet, to a snowbound Midsummer Night’s Dream, and a brand-new musical Pinocchio for families.

Speaking from the Heart: Romeo a Juliet

5 – 8 November 2025, Sam Wanamaker Playhouse

The season opens in two languages. Romeo a Juliet, a new production from Theatr Cymru in association with Shakespeare’s Globe, reimagines Shakespeare’s most famous lovers through a Welsh lens.

Directed by Theatr Cymru’s Artistic Director, Steffan Donnelly, this is a Romeo and Juliet that asks not just how we love, but in what language we do it. Welsh and English are woven together in a lyrical, bilingual retelling that explores identity and belonging as deeply as it does passion.

“Speakest thou from the heart?”
“Ai dyna iaith dy galon?”

For six performances only, the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse becomes a meeting place of voices, culture and heart. Shakespeare’s words have rarely sounded so new.

Snow in Summer: A Midsummer Night’s Dream

15 November 2025 – 31 January 2026, Sam Wanamaker Playhouse

Then comes the Dream. For the first time in the Playhouse’s history, A Midsummer Night’s Dream will be performed entirely by candlelight. Here, Shakespeare’s comedy of mischief and metamorphosis becomes something darker and more unstable – a world of shadow, snow and desire where nothing is quite what it seems.

This major new co-production with Headlong, Bristol Old Vic and Leeds Playhouse reunites the Globe with Headlong’s Artistic Director, Holly Race Roughan and co-director, Naeem Hayat, following their acclaimed Henry V in 2022.

“The natural environment is unpredictable, the political and social landscape is on edge – tensions we are all experiencing today,” says Roughan. “This staging turns A Midsummer Night’s Dream on its head, asking us to re-examine its themes in the moment we are in.”

The cast includes Hedydd Dylan as Titania, Michael Marcus as Oberon, Danny Kirrane as Bottom and Sergo Vares as Puck, with design by Max Johns and music by Nicola T Chang. After its London run, the production tours nationally, taking its candlelit magic to Shakespeare North Playhouse, Leeds Playhouse, Bristol Old Vic and Oxford Playhouse.

Making the Impossible Possible: Pinocchio

29 November 2025 – 4 January 2026, Globe Theatre

Outside, meanwhile, the Globe Theatre bursts into song. This Christmas, it hosts the world premiere of Pinocchio, a new musical from Charlie Josephine (I, Joan; Cowbois) and composer Jim Fortune (Mr Gum and the Dancing Bear; Hex).

Directed by Sean Holmes, the Globe’s Associate Artistic Director, this is Collodi’s classic tale reinvented for a new generation. Expect warmth, wit, and invention as the wooden boy sets out to find his heart in a world where the impossible feels entirely within reach.

Tempests and Transformations for 2026

As the year turns, the candlelight remains. The Tempest (January 17–April 12, 2026) at Sam Wanamaker brings its own storm of magic and forgiveness, while Deep Azure (February 7–April 11, 2026) blends poetry and movement in a contemporary reflection on loss and renewal. Together, they complete a season that speaks of upheaval, rebirth, and the fragile yet enduring power of hope.

Dreams for All Seasons

So ends a year at the Globe where language, light and love meet in unexpected ways. From the rhythmic lilt of Welsh voices in Romeo a Juliet to the snow-flecked enchantment of A Midsummer Night’s Dream and the musical heart of Pinocchio, the season invites audiences to see the world anew.

In the half-light of the Playhouse, Prospero’s words still echo: “We are such stuff as dreams are made on.”
This winter, the Globe’s dreams burn bright.

Booking Information

Tickets and further information are available at shakespearesglobe.com. Public booking opened on 30 September 2025

Sam Wanamaker Playhouse
Shakespeare’s Globe
21 New Globe Walk
Bankside
London
SE1 9DT

For more London Theatre, check our guides to the Southbank and Bankside