An old Shakespearean theatre is set to be turned into a museum of his work with some pretty cool exhibitions to boot. Here’s what we know so far.
When you think of Shakespeare in London your mind probably jumps straight to The Globe. Fair enough, it is a pretty iconic site (even if the site has moved since The Bard’s day). But did you know that before Old Bill took to the stage there, he cut his teeth in the theatres of Shoreditch?
As it happens one of these fabled theatres is being turned into a new permanent museum dedicated to Shakespeare’s pre-Globe work, set to open sometime in spring 2024.
When’s that? They’re saying pre-1598 which would mean The Bard and his theatre company would be at pretty astronomical heights of fame already, with Romeo and Juliet and Henry V already successful productions.
What’s the Lowdown?
Queue everyone’s favourite buzzword: the exhibitions at The Museum of Shakespeare are going to be fully, yes, you guessed it, immersive!
As hackneyed as the word is these days, what they’ve got lined up does sound pretty cool. They’re going to be using AI technology to recreate parts of Shakespearean plays and project them onto a stage for us all to watch.
Given that this will be happening on the site of The Curtain Theatre, and the actual stage where these plays would have been performed for the first time way back when, we’re genuinely very excited.
They’ll also be working in other exhibits to invoke the sounds and smells of The Bard’s London, not such a charming feature as the whole stage thing but still cool nonetheless.
The Curtain Theatre
The Curtain Theatre was Shakespeare’s Shoreditch playhouse, though for much of the time he worked its stage it was known simply as The Theatre. The place had been lost for hundreds of years but was rediscovered in an archaeological dig in 2012.
Many of his great plays debuted here, including Every Man in His Humour which starred Shakespeare himself. That means when you’re looking at the stage in the Museum of Shakespeare, you’ll be seeing the very place he once walked – a pretty cool thought to say the least.
Though we can’t quite get over the fact Old Bill might have been a Shoreditch hipster back in his day…
Museum of Shakespeare: Practical Information
When: Spring 2024 – exact date still TBA
Where: The Stage, 22 Hewett St, London EC2A 3NL
