Shakespeare’s Globe

John Ronayne was recruited by Sam Wanamaker in 1976 to work on the authentic re-creation of Shakespeare’s Globe theatre, very near to its original Bankside site in Southwark, south London.

Working with the project’s architects and scholars, Ronayne’s role was to propose and specify the likeliest authentic decoration. 20 years of research, visual evidence and scale models resulted in a final scheme, summarised in the Cambridge University Press book ‘Shakespeare’s Globe Rebuilt’, which accompanied the theatre’s opening in 1997.

Globe Indoor Playhouse

Shakespeare’s company did not only play in the ‘wooden O’, open to the weather. In winter months after 1608 they used an indoor theatre at Blackfriars, across the river in the City of London. Although the theatre has gone, the site can still be visited - Playhouse Yard, London EC4.

It was always intended that an indoor theatre should be part of the Globe complex. As long ago as 1974 John Ronayne had made a reconstruction model of a likely prototype, based on a 17th-century architectural drawing by an assistant of Inigo Jones. His model was featured on the Globe’s website raising funds for the fitting-out of the new playhouse, which opened in January 2014. The model is now lodged in the permanent Shakespeare’s Globe exhibition, adjacent to the theatre.