Globe On Screen - All's Well That Ends Well

BBFC Consumer Advice: Contains very mild language and innuendo.

A story of love and magic, Shakespeare defies all expectations in this comedy.

Helena loves the arrogant Bertram, and when she cures the King of France of his sickness, she claims Bertram as her reward. But her brand-new husband, flying from Helena to join the wars, attaches two obstructive conditions to their marriage – conditions he is sure will never be met.

All’s Well That Ends Well grinds the romantic against the realistic at every turn and brilliantly reverses all the usual expectations of Shakespearean comedy. Some of Shakespeare’s most inventive language gives life to not just his single-minded heroine and her churlish lover, but a fantastic cast of frauds, cynics, sentimentalists and buffoons.

Playing alongside the fabulous Janie Dee, Countess of Roussillon, are some familiar faces. Helena will be played by Ellie Piercy (Liberty and The Merry Wives of Windsor), while her Bertram is Sam Crane whose Hotspur in Henry IV last season won great acclaim. James Garnon (King James I in Anne Boleyn) will play the cowardly parasite, Parolles.

This is the first production of All’s Well That Ends Well at the Globe.The production employs Jacobean costume, staging and music.

RUNNING TIME:
Act 1 80 min
Act 2 86 min