Shakespeare’s rarely staged history of the brother who followed Richard the Lionheart plays by candlelight in the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, directed by Jaz Woodcock-Stewart.
Shakespeare’s King John, one of his least performed histories, plays the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse at Shakespeare’s Globe on Bankside from Saturday 20 February to Sunday 11 April 2027.
Shakespeare wrote the play in the mid-1590s, though it was not printed until the First Folio of 1623. It follows John, the son of Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine, who takes the crown when his elder brother, Richard the Lionheart, dies.
John spends the rest of the play trying to keep it. His nephew, the boy Arthur of Brittany, contests the claim with the King of France and a papal legate behind him. The most memorable voice belongs to Philip the Bastard, Richard’s natural son.
The Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, opened in 2014, is the Globe’s indoor theatre, a Jacobean playhouse of about 340 seats lit by candles. It brings a play of plots and private bargains close to its audience.
Jaz Woodcock-Stewart makes her Globe debut as director. Her Paradise Now! at the Bush Theatre was nominated for an Olivier Award, and her Glass Menagerie for Theater Basel was invited to the 2026 Theatertreffen in Berlin.