The Globe celebrates the Olympic Games with a marathon of its own, all thirty-eight plays, each performed by a different theatre company, in a different language.
“Performances will include The Taming of the Shrew in Urdu, The Tempest in Arabic, Troilus and Cressida in Maori, and a production of King Lear in Aboriginal languages. Other languages likely to be showcased include Turkish, Greek, Lithuanian, and the Zimbabwean dialect Shona, as well as a performance of Love’s Labour’s Lost in sign language.” (Source: London, Reuters, 21 January 2011)
Revelling in the vast array of communities and languages that make-up London’s vibrant cultural landscape, 37 international companies will present every one of Shakespeare’s plays in a different language over six weeks:
| All’s Well That Ends Well | Arpana, Mumbai | Gujarati |
| Antony and Cleopatra | Oyn Atölyesi, Istanbul | Turkish |
| As You Like It | Marjanishvili Theatre, Tbilisi | Georgian |
| The Comedy of Errors | Roy-e-Sabs, Kabul | Dari Persian |
| Coriolanus | Chiten, Kyoto | Japanese |
| Cymbeline | South Sudan Theatre Company, Juba | Juba Arabic |
| Hamlet | Meno Fortas, Vilnius | Lithuanian |
| Henry IV Part I | Compañia Nacional de Teatro, Mexico | Mexican Spanish |
| Henry IV Part II | Elkafka Espacio Teatral, Buenos Aires | Argentinian Spanish |
| Henry V | Shakespeare’s Globe, London | English |
| Henry VI, A New Balkan Trilogy : | ||
| Henry VI Part I | National Theatre, Belgrade | Serbian |
| Henry VI Part II | National Theatre of Albania, Tirana | Albanian |
| Henry VI Part III | National Theatre of Bitola, Bitola | Macedonian |
| Henry VIII | Rakatá, Madrid | Castilian Spanish |
| Julius Caesar | I Termini Company, Rome | Italian |
| King John | Gabriel Sundukayan Theatre, Yerevan | Armenian |
| King Lear | Belarus Free Theatre, Minsk | Bielarussian |
| Love’s Labours Lost | Deafinitely Theatre, London | British Sign Language |
| Macbeth | Teatr im. Kochanowskiego, Opole | Polish |
| Measure for Measure | Vakhtangov Theatre, Moscow | Russian |
| The Merchant of Venice | Habima National Theatre, Tel Aviv | Hebrew |
| The Merry Wives of Windsor | Bitter Pill, Nairobi | Swahili |
| A Midsummer Night’s Dream | Yohangza Theatre, Seoul | Korean |
| Much Ado About Nothing | Compagnie Hypermobile, Paris | French |
| Othello | Q Brothers, Chicago | Hip Hop |
| Pericles | National Theatre of Greece, Athens | Greek |
| Richard II | Ashtar, Ramallah | Palestinean Arabic |
| Richard III | National Theatre of China, Beijing | Mandarin |
| Romeo and Juliet | Grupo Galpão, Belo Horizonte | Brazilian Portuguese |
| The Taming of the Shrew | Theatre Wallay, Lahore | Urdu |
| The Tempest | Dhaka Theatre, Dhaka | Bengali |
| Timon of Athens | Bremer Shakespeare Company, Bremen | German |
| Titus Andronicus | Tang Shu-wing, Hong Kong | Cantonese |
| Troilus and Cressida | Ngakau Toa, Auckland | Maori |
| Twelfth Night | Company Theatre, Mumbai | Hindi |
| Two Gentlemen of Verona | Two Gents Productions, Zimbabwe | Shona |
| Venus and Adonis | Isango Ensemble, Cape Town | South African idioms |
| The Winter’s Tale | Renegade Theatre, Lagos | Yoruba |