16-07-2025
Why Shakespeare's Globe is still the best-value night out in London
Shakespeare's plays were so popular in the 16th and 17th centuries because they were good — and because they were cheap.
Productions at the Globe, as well as the other theatres that dotted the south side of the Thames, saw audiences cram in, with the cheapest 'seats' being no seats at all, but standing places in the 'pit' below the stage. Few complained, even as their knees no doubt protested, thanks to the quality of what unfolded in front of them.
The same holds true in 2025: standing tickets are still only £10, or £5 if you book early enough, and the theatre remains as spectacular as ever.
This summer's Romeo and Juliet, for instance, is full of life. Easy to follow and so funny that the audience roars with laughter at all the right moments, the classic romance is reimagined in the Wild West with a vibrant Lola Shalam as Juliet.
It is a far cry from the miscommunication and heavy-handed teaching at GCSE that has put generations of students off Shakespeare.
For Michelle Terry, the artistic director at Shakespeare's Globe, making theatre accessible is vital to turning around perceptions, and the cheap tickets certainly help. When the Globe reopened in 1997, the £5 'groundling' ticket was a revelation, giving theatregoers the ability to stand as Shakespeare's working-class contemporaries once did. That you can still get in, more than two decades later, for £5 or £10, is nothing short of remarkable.
The pricing, Terry reckons, gives audiences the chance to make their mind up about Shakespeare without pressure. While she wants all her audiences to have an 'amazing' experience, the low entry fee gives audiences 'the right to have an opinion'.
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'You can say, I am not having a good time, and I can afford to leave,' she says. 'It affords you [the ability] to gauge what your taste is, what your values are, what your beliefs are, what you think about what's being talked about in the play.'
It's a far cry from shows across the river in the West End, where ticket prices often run into the hundreds. When you've paid that much, Terry says with a laugh, 'it better be good'. Theatre at that price point becomes a rare, special occasion.
But not so at the Globe, where a groundling ticket makes a trip to the theatre a viable evening out for Gen Zers seeking something more authentic than screen time. Pub gardens are great but here — for less than the price of two pints — you can get almost three hours of entertainment, even if you won't be sitting down. 'When you blow the dust off,' Shalam says, '[the Globe] still feels unbelievably universal.'
While access for all is the goal, the team at the Globe are aware of the role that Shakespeare plays in the national curriculum and make every effort to ensure as many students as possible can see its plays. Each year it tries to programme at least one of the GCSE texts, and in 2023-24 more than 120,000 students from over 2,000 schools visited the Globe to see Shakespeare live. Of these, 26,000 tickets were provided free to state secondary schools.
And it's easy to see why schools are so keen to get their hands on these tickets. Not only does the Globe bring these plays to life, but it's far easier to believe Shakespeare was one of the most popular playwrights of his time when you're standing beneath the Globe's unique thatched roof — the only one in London after they were banned following the Great Fire of London — leaning on the stage a few feet from the action. 'When you're able to experience Shakespeare performed at the Globe, you're able to hear and see the words instead of being hunched over a school desk,' Shalam says. 'You're able to witness these individuals go on these emotional and life journeys.'
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The Globe benefits from school visitors too: if the performers can hold the attention of a crowd of 14-year-olds, they can hold the attention of anyone. 'Laughs and shouts are almost live feedback, especially those up close, leaning on the stage,' says Sean Holmes, director of this production of Romeo and Juliet. 'You can tell an audience is following the play because they react impulsively.'
School visitors aren't the only ones keen to see Shakespeare. Today the Globe truly lives up to its name, with a third of visitors last year coming from abroad, from 147 different countries. For Terry, bringing people together from all walks of life is central to making theatre accessible — especially in today's political climate.
'We are becoming increasingly polarised, isolationist, individualist. But for me theatre is one of our most democratic art forms,' she says. 'You stand next to someone you don't know. You don't know what their religion is. You don't know who they vote for. You probably don't even know what country they've come from.'
