THE DIRECTOR OF THE GLOBE THEATRE, WHO SAID THAT SHAKESPEARE MAKES HER “VERY SLEEPY”, WILL LEAVE HER POSITION. I posted here in June of this year about how Emma Rice, who had been appointed to be artistic director of the Globe Shakespeare Theatre, had said in interviews that Shakespeare makes her “very sleepy” and that “a lot of Shakespeare feels like medicine”.
Now, as this article by Hannah Furness in the Telegraph reports, Emma Rice will leave her position as artistic director of Shakespeare’s Globe in April 2018.
What precipitated the departure was a dispute over lighting. The Globe was intended to simulate the experience of watching Shakespeare’s plays under the conditions in which they were originally performed. Rice’s first production, of Midsummer Night’s Dream, included the use of neon lights, microphones for actors, and light rigging. The board of the Globe determined that: “…future productions will now see a return to simulating original light conditions as closely as possible.” And Emma Rice resigned.