Globe puts Shakespeare shorts on big screens

Pick a play: an image of how one of the big screens might look by the Thames

Short film versions of Shakespeare's 37 plays are to be shown on giant screens next year to mark the 400th anniversary of his death.

Actors are being dispatched around the world to film their lines on locations where the plays are set.

Fans of the bard can expect to see Cleopatra in Egypt, Julius Caesar in the Roman Forum and Hamlet at Elsinore.

Each 10-minute film will be screened along a two-mile stretch of the River Thames in London on 23-24 April 2016.

"It's a great marker just to look at how international Shakespeare's reach is, and quite how much he belongs to the world," said the project's mastermind, Dominic Dromgoole, artistic director at Shakespeare's Globe.

Artistic director Dominic Dromgoole stands down at the Globe in April 2016

He said the films would "capture the essence" of each play and act as a "sharp, tangy introduction" to people who knew nothing about it.

During the next six months, the mini-movies will be shot, with noted Shakespearean actors - names yet to be announced - reciting speeches from the plays against the appropriate backdrop.

Additional locations will include Shylock in Venice's Jewish Ghetto, Romeo and Juliet in Verona, Henry VIII and Wolsey at Hampton Court and King Lear and Cordelia on Dover beach.

Films will include clips from the Globe's in-house productions and additional material shot at Shakespeare's birthplace at Stratford-upon-Avon.

On the anniversary weekend in April, the films will be shown on 37 big screens erected between Westminster and Tower Bridges on a stretch dubbed The Complete Walk.

"We thought it was important that London was at the centre of it, as Shakespeare did most of his work here and those plays were first seen here," said Dromgoole, who steps down at the Globe in April after a decade at the helm.

The public will be able to dip in to individual plays, or take in the full works. "It would be wonderful if they sat and watched 10 minutes of every single one, but I can't imagine people doing that," Dromgoole said.

Going to Barbados?

The most far-flung piece of filming is likely to be for Antony and Cleopatra at the Pyramids in Egypt, although Dromgoole said he had been lobbied for The Tempest scenes to be shot in Barbados.

"A couple of actors suggested that they be flown out there for a day's filming. I'm not sure we're going to run to that. It should probably be on an island between Tunis and Milan."

The £500,000 project is being paid for by the Globe, with support from the British Council, the mayor of London and an anonymous donor. It is hoped the films will also be presented in cities across the UK and internationally throughout 2016.

The anniversary weekend will also see the return of a two-year world tour of Hamlet, which will have its four final performances back on the Globe's open-air stage after travelling to some 195 countries.