Shakespeare’s Globe theatre in London unveiled plans Tuesday for a neighbouring indoor venue which will stage candlelit plays.
Developers hope the 340-seat theatre will be the world’s most complete recreation of an indoor Jacobean theatre and aim to stage the first public performances in January 2014.
Globe artistic director Dominic Dromgoole called the theatre, to be built next to the current open-air venue, “a leap into the unknown”.
The theatre will be named after US film director Sam Wanamaker, the man most responsible for recreating the existing arena.
The new venue will enable productions to be staged all-year-round as the current theatre is only open between April and October.
Wanamaker, who died in 1993 — four years before his brainchild was realised — had always stated his desire for a second, indoor, theatre.
Professor Martin White, a leading scholar in theatre lighting, explained how Shakespeare’s plays lent themselves to candlelight.
“The plays are divided into acts to enable the company to manage the candles, so they can be trimmed or replaced as part of the rhythm of the performance,” he said.