Gorboduc

Globe Education began its series of staged readings of plays in 1994. Since then audiences have been able to see and hear over 150 plays written between 1567 and 1642. These 'performances with scripts' are staged by professional actors and directors.

Staged reading of Gorboduc by Thomas Norton and Thomas Sackville (1562).

The aging King Gorboduc decides to resign his crown and to divide his kingdom between his two sons, Ferrex and Porrex, in order that 'they may both learn to rule,/ And I may joy to see their ruling well'. The division of one's kingdom, as Shakespeare's King Lear also reminds us, is usually a mistake. Originally performed before Elizabeth I by members of the Inner Temple, Norton and Sackville's stark and powerful political tragedy illustrates the consequences of a ruler's mismanagement of his succession, and his kingdom's subsequent descent into civil war.