New productions of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, The Merry Wives of Windsor, Twelfth Night and Troilus and Cressida; and Arthur Miller’s The Crucible
Directors include Sean Holmes, Ola Ince, Robin Belfield, Owen Horsley & Lucy Cuthbertson
London’s Shakespeare’s Globe has revealed its new summer season for 2025.
Running from April to October 2025, the season will include Romeo and Juliet (25 April to 2 August 2025) and The Merry Wives of Windsor (4 July to 20 September 2025), both directed by Sean Holmes.
Romeo & Juliet is set to have an American Wild West setting.
The show will star Abdul Sessay and Lola Shalam as Romeo and Juliet, alongside Niamh James as Abram/Cover, Roman Asde as Benvolio, Léa des Garets as Lady Capulet, John Lightbody as Friar Lawrence, Michael Elcock as Mercutio, Jamie-Rose Monk as Nurse, and Rawaed Asde as Tybalt.
Joining Sean Holmes in the creative team for Romeo & Juliet are: design by Paul Wills, composer Grant Olding, fight director Maisie Carter, movement director Tamsin Hurtado-Clarke, text by Si Trinder, voice by Liz Flint, and casting by Becky Paris.
And joining Holmes in The Merry Wives of Windsor creative team are: design by Grace Smart, text by Si Trinder, and voice by Gary Horner.
A new revival of Arthur Miller’s The Crucible (8 May to 12 July 2025) is also coming to the Globe, directed by Ola Ince.
The creative team includes design by Amelia Jane Hankin, assistant director Lindsay McAllister, composer Renell Shaw, and voice and text by Annemette Verspeak.
There will also be a new production of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night (8 August to 25 October 2025), directed by Robin Belfield.
The creative team also includes design by Jean Chan, composer Simon Slater, and movement director Ingrid Mackinnon.
Owen Horsley is set to direct Troilus and Cressida (26 September to 26 October 2025), with design by Ryan Dawson-Laight.
Rough Magic (19 July to 23 August), directed by Lucy Cuthbertson will also return to the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse.
In other news, A Midsummer Night’s Dream: For One Night Only will take place on Sunday 14 September 2025, directed by Blanche McIntyre. A company of actors to be announced, who all meet for the first time on the day of performance.
The Globe’s flagship project for secondary schools, Playing Shakespeare with Deutsche Bank, will see Macbeth (13 March to 20 April 2025) return for the 19th year, directed by Lucy Cuthbertson.
Also Sarah Dickenson will be joining Shakespeare’s Globe as Writer-in-Residence in collaboration with Exeter Northcott Theatre, supported by Playwright’s ’73.
More about tickets to Romeo & Juliet at Shakespeare’s Globe in London
More about tickets to The Merry Wives of Windsor at Shakespeare’s Globe in London
More about tickets to The Crucible at Shakespeare’s Globe in London
More about tickets to Twelfth Night at Shakespeare’s Globe in London
More about tickets to Troilus and Cressida at Shakespeare’s Globe in London
More about tickets to Rough Magic at the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse in London
What They Said
“I am delighted to share our 2025 summer season. The Globe is an independent charity, and as a charity our focus is always on our beneficiaries. At the heart of the Globe is the relationship between our beneficiaries – our artists and our audiences. It seems too obvious to say, but they can’t exist without each other and that is especially true in the embrace of our wooden ‘O’. These are complicated times for cultural organisations: how can we continue to create and experiment, question, excite, and provoke at the same time as reassure an audience that the experience they have will be deserving of their precious time and hard-earned cash. This season at The Globe has artists and audience in mind as we try to balance well-known and beloved plays, with lesser known, but equally extraordinary ones. We hope this season strikes that balance; with these timely & timeless tales told by some of the most important artists working in British Theatre today.
We also hope this exciting season comes at a price that people can afford. A price that allows people to take a punt on a play they may not know, in an iconic theatre they may never have visited before, in the company of people that they know, as well as those they have never met. Last year, I’m incredibly proud that despite the precarity of the moment, 51%, or precisely 220,351, of our tickets were available at £30 or under, and nearly 75,000 people not only saw a play, but were part of the experience with our unique and precious £5 Groundling ticket. Accessible ticket pricing is crucial to us at the Globe, not only to ensure the Theatre truly is a place that is open and available for all, but because a theatrical experience shared by thousands of people is democracy in action. Theatre is the space for people from all walks of life, from all around the world, across every socio-political spectrum, to come together, in peace with delicious kindness, and for a brief amount of time to imagine others’ lives, to debate others’ points of view, to empathise with others’ experiences and to be taken to worlds elsewhere before returning back to this one. All of us at the Globe look forward to welcoming people during the summer, come rain or shine, to experience together the magic and importance of storytelling.”Michelle Terry, Artistic Director, Shakespeare’s Globe
More about the directors
Sean Holmes
Sean’s previous work for the Globe includes Much Ado About Nothing (2024), The Comedy of Errors (2023 & 2024), The Winter’s Tale (2023), The Tempest (2022), Twelfth Night (2021), Hamlet (2021) Metamorphoses (2021), Henry VI (2020), Richard III (2020), and A Midsummer Night’s Dream (2019). Sean recently co-directed Cowbois with Charlie Josephine (I, Joan). Before the Globe, Sean was the Artistic Director of the Lyric Hammersmith.
Ola Ince
Ola is a critically acclaimed, award-winning theatre, film, and opera director. Her previous work for the Globe includes Othello (2024) and Romeo and Juliet (2021). Ola was an Artistic Associate at the Royal Court Theatre from 2018-2022, and Artistic Associate at the Lyric Hammersmith and Theatre Royal Stratford East in 2016. Other theatre credits include Once On This Island (Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre), Christmas in the Sunshine (Unicorn Theatre), Heart (Minetta Lane Theatre, NYC), Is God Is & Poet in da Corner (Royal Court Theatre), The Knife of Dawn (Royal Opera House), Viral (Headlong Theatre and Century Films), Appropriate (Donmar), The Convert, Dutchman (Young Vic), and Twilight: Los Angeles 1992 (Gate Theatre).
Robin Belfield
Robin is a theatre director, writer, and educator. His directorial credits include Mother Goose (Theatre Royal Winchester), Princess Essex (Globe), Twelfth Night, The Merchant of Venice, Sapho and Phao (RSC), Blue/Orange, Red Velvet, You Can’t Take It With You, Vincent in Brixton, The Odd Couple (Richard Burton Company, RWCMD), Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan, The Adventures of Pinocchio, Arabian Nights, The Wind in the Willows, Treasure Island (Watermill Theatre), The Santa Trap, Here Be Monsters (UK Tour), Walking the Chains, Trade It? (Show of Strength, Bristol), The Twits, Charlotte’s Web, A Christmas Carol (Dukes Theatre, Lancaster), The Entertainer, Oleanna, Othello, Kiss of the Spiderwoman, Duck Variations (Nuffield Theatre, Southampton), Machinal, and Anna Karenina (Oxford School of Drama).
Owen Horsley
Owen is an Associate Artist of the Royal Shakespeare Company, where he has directed Henry VI: Rebellion, Wars of the Roses, Maydays by David Edgar, Salome by Oscar Wilde, and The Famous Victories of Henry V. Owen was Associate Director on the RSC King and Country Tour, working with Gregory Doran on Richard II, Henry IV Part 1 and 2, and Henry V (2013-16). Directing credits also include Diana: The Musical (Hammersmith Apollo), Into the Woods (RWCMD), La Cenerentola (Nevill Holt Opera), Linck & Mülhahn (Hampstead Theatre), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Garsington Opera), Henry V (Shanghai Dramatic Arts Centre), and The Picture of Dorian Gray (Watermill Theatre). Owen is also an Associate Director for Cheek by Jowl. Troilus and Cressida will be designed by Ryan Dawson-Laight.
Lucy Cuthbertson
Director of Education at Shakespeare’s Globe, Lucy Cuthbertson is the director of Olivier award-nominated Midsummer Mechanicals, and Playing Shakespeare with Deutsche Bank: Romeo & Juliet and Macbeth.
Shakespeare's Globe, London
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