One of the world’s most popular new live entertainment destinations, Pop-up Globe, has announced it will be popping up in Sydney later this year.
Pop-up Globe – the world’s first full-scale temporary working replica of Shakespeare’s theatre, the second Globe, will team up again with the world’s leading live entertainment company, Live Nation, to present a festival of critically-acclaimed Shakespeare productions unlike any Sydney has ever seen.
In just two years, Pop-up Globe has become one of the most popular new theatres ever, drawing audiences of more than 450,000 people in the first 24 months including more than 150,000 attendees at its critically-acclaimed Melbourne season earlier this year.
In 2015, Pop-up Globe Founder and Artistic Director, Dr Miles Gregory was reading a pop-up story book to his young daughter Nancy, featuring a pop-up of the original Globe Theatre. She asked if the family could visit it. Gregory explained it was a long way away… then an idea formed.
An international theatre consultant with a PhD in Shakespeare in performance, Gregory envisioned a new type of theatre experience: a temporary, full-scale working replica of the second Globe Theatre, complete with its own professional theatre company, offering the public the opportunity to experience the magic of Shakespeare’s masterworks staged in the space for which they were originally written and performed.
Just 15 months later, in time for the 400th Anniversary of Shakespeare’s death in 2016, the first Pop-up Globe was constructed in downtown Auckland, New Zealand. At the time the originators of the project, Miles Gregory and his business partner Tobias Grant, had no idea whether the project would be a success. Twenty-four months later Pop-up Globe turned out to be one of the world’s most extraordinarily popular theatrical adventures ever.
Dr Gregory says he believes Shakespeare’s work performed in the space it is written for is a completely unique and transformative experience. “Our audiences are blown away by the immersive experience of seeing Shakespeare performed in the space for which it was written,” says Gregory.
“The relationship between actor and audience, the spectacular space itself, together with the power of Shakespeare’s incredible work, means attending plays at Pop-up Globe is totally different from anything you’ve seen before. Pop-up Globe has won the hearts of theatre-goers, many of whom have attended on multiple occasions. This isn’t dusty Shakespeare. This is now. Alive. Like a party. It is bawdy, hilarious, brutal and blood-soaked.”
Live Nation, the world’s leading live entertainment company, jumped at the chance to work with Pop-up Globe to secure this unique theatre experience for Australian audiences again, after producing the hugely successful season in 2017 / 2018 in Melbourne beside the Sidney Myer Music Bowl.
“Live Nation has a great history of presenting only the very best live performances and we are thrilled to be able to bring this extraordinary production to Sydney audiences after our wonderful Melbourne season,” said Luke Hede, Vice President Live Nation Australasia. “Pop-up Globe is the most exciting theatre project we’ve seen in a long time and even more exciting that it’s coming out of our part of the world.”
The first Globe stood for 14 years until a disastrous fire demolished it in 1613. The second Globe was rebuilt on the same foundations by Shakespeare and his company significantly modifying the original first Globe to create what became one of the most famous theatres in history.
Pop-up Globe uses as its historical reference point ground-breaking research by Associate Professor Tim Fitzpatrick and Russell Emerson of the University of Sydney to create the world’s first full-scale temporary working replica of Shakespeare’s theatre, the second Globe.
Pop-up Globe is a three-story, 16-sided, 900-person capacity theatre. It unites cutting-edge scaffold technology with a 400-year-old design to transport audiences back in time. For its Sydney season, Pop-up Globe will bring with it a travelling festival of critically acclaimed productions, which will be announced in the coming weeks along with other details.
For more information, and to join the waitlist, visit: www.popupglobe.com.au for details.
Image: Pop Up Globe – photo by Jay Wennington