Pop-up Globe Reaches Milestone Moment

Pop-up Globe Reaches
Milestone Moment

1000 SHOWS | 500,000+ TICKETS | 2 COUNTRIES

Pop-up Globe spins into action this weekend with world premieres of new productions and on track to reach a massive milestone during this spectacular season of Shakespeare.

During its fourth New Zealand season, featuring The Taming of the Shrew, Richard III, Hamlet and Measure for Measure, the New Zealand-born theatre company will notch up its 1000th global performance – an extraordinary achievement in less than three years.

Tomorrow night’s gala opening of The Taming of the Shrew also marks more than half a million tickets sold, and sees the company mounting simultaneous seasons in Auckland and Sydney – believed to be a first for any New Zealand arts company.

Pop-up Globe is now the most successful theatrical export ever developed in New Zealand – and one of the most successful Shakespeare companies in the world, selling some 250,000 tickets to its global productions every year, as well as acting as an ambassador for New Zealand arts and creative talent at home and abroad.

Pop-up Globe founder and artistic director Dr Miles Gregory says that the company’s success is down to teamwork and a Kiwi “can-do” attitude.

“New Zealand has a long and proud heritage of making amazing projects from scratch in our own back-yard. Pop-up Globe started right here in Auckland and is now one of the world’s leading Shakespeare companies. We’re very proud that our team are based here and that we can showcase these extraordinary plays to our home crowd before any international transfer.”

Every year, the company receives thousands of applications from around the world to join their acting ensemble. The company believes that an international ensemble brings benefits far beyond the stage, so while some 75% of the casts are drawn from New Zealand actors, Pop-up Globe has worked with actors from America, the UK, Norway, Australia, and many other countries since its inception.

Among the cast for the first shows in the new season are fan favourites Stephen Butterworth and Sheena Irving as well as household names including The Castle's Anne Tenney and Naked Samoans star Dave Fane.

But while the acting talent is second-to-none, it’s the response of audiences and critics to the company’s work that has made the biggest splash.

“The way New Zealanders have responded to this project is absolutely astonishing,” says Dr Gregory. “You can come and see one of our shows for just $10, standing in the yard just inches from the action. The mix of low entry-level prices combined with exciting and bloody action on stage is the reason why we see young people come again and again to see our shows, sometimes attending over twenty or thirty times over the season. We love to see the passion our work inspires in our audiences.”

Critics across the ditch in Australia have raved about the company’s seasons in Melbourne and Sydney, with the Sydney Morning Herald critic describing Macbeth as “possibly the finest production of the play I have ever seen”, and the Australian Stage reviewer writing that Pop-up Globe’s As You Like It in Melbourne was “the best night of theatre ever”.

“Many Pop-up Globe shows are more like a riot than a traditional theatre show,” Dr Gregory says, “and this new season sees uproarious comedy mixed with fourteen actors performing full battle sequences in bespoke armour and covering our groundlings in blood. We can promise this season will bring nothing less with more battles, more blood and more laughter than ever before.”

There’s always a twist at Pop-up Globe! This is no dusty Shakespeare. It’s alive. Like a party.

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