Wanted: artistic director for the Globe, must like the plays of William Shakespeare

SHAKESPEARE’S Globe is advertising for a new artistic director who will appreciate its historic roots, after critics of its maverick director accused her of turning the theatre into a “sixthform disco”. The Globe has published a job advert asking for applicants who are passionate about the theatre’s past, with a genuine “knowledge and love of the work of Shakespeare and his contemporaries”.

It comes as Emma Rice, the current director, finishes another year at the theatre before leaving by mutual agreement. She ran into difficulties at the Globe over a dispute about artificial lighting and amplification, shocking supporters of the theatre by appearing to flout its tradition of working as close to Elizabethan conditions as possible.

When she joined the company, she admitted having limited experience directing Shakespeare, and confided that reading him made her “very sleepy”. One critic likened her production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream to a “sixth form disco”, while another accused her of “a cynical betrayal of Sam Wanamaker’s work, showing no understanding of the point of the place”.

The announcement of her departure, which will fall after two years of working there, was said to be no surprise to insiders, one of whom called it a mistake to have employed someone who did not appear to “like Shakespeare”.

The Globe admitted that the debacle had led them to “review the dynamics of the current executive and senior management leadership structure”.

In a frank acknowledgment of its recent difficulties, the job application pack states: “The recent technological installations in the Globe Theatre, and the Board’s subsequent decision to stage work beyond the 2017 season without any amplification and designed light, generated a lively debate and has clearly demonstrated that the Globe is held in a position of great national import.”