The Complete Walk celebrates 'exotic' Shakespeare
From Verona to Athens to Denmark to the Scottish Highlands - the varied locations for William Shakespeare's plays reads like a 17th Century travel guide of far-flung places (although don't expect to find Australia, it had only just been discovered by Europeans in the playwright's lifetime).
To commemorate the 400th anniversary of the Bard's death, has assembled an all-star cast to make 37 short films - one for each play - and here's the twist: each lavish 10 minute vignette is made on location in the real setting of each plot.
-
![]()
More about the resource dedicated to Shakespeare's work and the playhouse for which he wrote
-
![]()
Experience the genius of the Bard's creativity and its reinterpretation by artists in all art forms.
The films have been directed by a selection of young directors and blend existing Shakespeare's Globe footage with new material shot in locations that capture the breadth of the Bard's imagination, including the Pyramids of Dahshur in Egypt, the rocks of Elsinore, Denmark, and the historic Jewish Ghetto of Venice, Italy.
Featuring James Norton, Gemma Arterton, Dominic West, Simon Russell Beale, Peter Capaldi, to name a few, the cast list is as impressive as the scenery.
The films were shown on massive screens punctuating Bankside during the anniversary weekend, and will be shown here on Shakespeare Lives during the six month festival. The Complete Walk was the brainchild of the Globe's now former Artistic Director Dominic Dromgoole. he said of the project:
"To see Peter Capaldi capturing the madness of Titus surrounded by the rubble of antiquity, and Dominic West the scorn of Coriolanus as he looks on modern Rome, provokes questions about time and place and imagination.
Our films also celebrate the flowering of Shakespeare’s imagination on stage and film, but there is something right and just about bringing Shakespeare’s language to the places themselves, and creating something brand new in the confluence of place and poetry."
Each film will be available to watch in full from this page for 1 month followed by an edited version.
Watch a selection of the Complete Walk films (films 32-37)... Much Ado About Nothing, The Comedy of Errors, The Taming of the Shrew, The Winter's Tale, All's Well That Ends Well, As You Like It
A unique journey
Shakespeare Globe's Artistic Director Dominic Dromgoole explains The Complete Walk
Watch highlights (films 26-31)... The Merry Wives of Windsor, Cymbeline, Henry VIII, Love's Labour's Lost, Measure for Measure, The Two Gentlemen of Verona
Watch highlights (films 20-25)... Othello, Coriolanus, Titus Andronicus, Timon of Athens, Troilus and Cressida, Julius Caesar
Watch highlights (films 14-19)... Romeo and Juliet, King Lear, King John, Henry IV Parts 1-2, Henry V
Watch highlights (films 8-13)... A Midsummer Night's Dream, Macbeth, Henry VI Parts 1-3, Richard III
Watch highlights (films 1-7)... Antony and Cleopatra, Hamlet, Pericles, Richard II, The Merchant of Venice, The Tempest, Twelfth Night
More from Shakespeare's Globe
-
![]()
Presenter Katie Derham celebrates the opening of The Complete Walk, all 37 Shakespeare plays each represented by new films created by Shakespeare鈥檚 Globe.
-
![]()
After a two-year world tour to almost every country, Katie Derham joins the cast and crew of Hamlet on their triumphant return to the Globe stage.
-
![]()
With exclusive performances from inside the candle-lit Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, Katie Derham explores the world of Shakespeare鈥檚 Late Plays.
More on Shakespeare
-
![]()
Discover more about the 200th anniversary of the world鈥檚 oldest Shakespeare performance tradition at Hamlet鈥檚 Castle, Kronborg, in Denmark.
-
![]()
How did the famous playwright became the first non-Royal, apart from Britannia, to appear on the back of a 拢20 note in 1970?
-
![]()
You may think of the Bard as a middle-aged man with a receding hairline and pointy beard, but very little is actually known about his physical appearance.
