Pop-Up Globe celebrates 1000th Performance

International smash-hit theatre initiative Pop-up Globe celebrated its 1000th performance last weekend with world premieres of Hamlet and Measure for Measure.

In the three years since the world’s first temporary working replica of the second Globe popped up in a carpark in Auckland’s CBD for its debut season, Pop-up Globe has shared the joy of Shakespeare performed in the space for which it was written with over half-a-million fans across four local seasons and two Australian tours.

Founder and Artistic Director, Dr Miles Gregory explains “we’re proud to have become one of Australasia’s major producing theatres (with) this weekend (marking) our 16th and 17th productions - a major output of work in just three years.”

“It’s marvellous that New Zealanders and Australians have enjoyed Pop-up Globe so much, making it possible for us to reach our 1000th performance. I guess this shows Shakespeare is very much alive and well in Auckland today.”

Pop-up Globe rolled out the red carpet tonight for the opening of comedy Measure for Measure while the tale of Hamlet took to the stage to the delight of fans waiting for Pop-up Globe to perform the most famous play ever written.

Dr Gregory advised “Hamlet is quite rightly regarded as the best play ever written.

“It is not only packed with lines that almost everyone will be familiar with – ‘To be or not to be, that is the question’ is probably the most famous - but is a truly great work of art that explores the human condition in a way that few other plays can match. If you haven’t seen Hamlet before, this is a great opportunity to see why this play changed the way we think about ourselves as humans.”

The same ensemble perform in Measure for Measure, in a new adaptation directed by Dr Gregory, who won Best Director in the BroadwayWorld Sydney theatre awards for his production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, which itself won Best Play in the same awards round.

All over the world leading Shakespeare companies are currently producing Measure for Measure. Although primarily an uproarious comedy of mistaken identity featuring larger than life characters ranging from independent brothel-keepers to inept police officers, the play is particularly topical as its central plot explores a horrifying abuse of power: the corrupt ruler of Vienna attempts to extort sexual favours from a young novice nun, in return for saving her brother’s life. When the nun threatens him with exposure, he replies with a chilling question: “Who will believe thee, Isabella?”

Dr Gregory chose the play for inclusion in the 2019 season precisely because of this topicality, but stresses that the production fully explores the comedy in the play alongside this darker theme.

He adds “this is an all-singing, all-dancing production that we’ve nicknamed ‘Shakespeare’s Moulin Rouge’. We don’t shy away from the dark heart of the play, instead we think the darkness is heightened by the hilarious comedy that surrounds it.”

Images: The Pop-up Globe's current production of Hamlet (top) and its stage (below).