Totus mundus agit histrionem is believed to be a kind of catchphrase for the original Globe Theatre. The phrase translates to “The whole world is a playhouse,” a sentiment not to far from Shakespeare’s famous quote, “All the world is a stage.” The new Globe, built just over ten years ago according to what are believed to be the specifications of the original, is adopting this slogan again for their upcoming season.

Apparently, a Totus Mundus season means a wide variety of Shakespearean plays, including King Lear, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Merry Wives of Windsor, and Timon of Athens. It is an interesting mix, particularly on the heels of their most successful season yet. That season included the widely known tragedy Romeo and Juliet. This season follows a similar format, balancing well known titles (Lear and Midsummer) against lesser known (Windsor) and even obscure (Timon) works.

While the better known titles inspire a variety of responses, from voracious anticipation to overexposed fatigue, it is the lesser titles that have more potential to impact the audience. Timon may be well known to Bard aficionados, but the uninitiated may not even have heard of its existence. As a result, the artists involved have more creative leeway, because they are presenting an unknown quantity. Its audience is less likely to come into the production with preconceived notions about concept and characterization. In this way, The Globe has the potential to broaden its audiences’ understanding of Shakespearean theatre.

Dramatists and filmmakers alike have always sought drama out of people confined together in enclosed spaces. The theory is that in this “bunker” scenario, conflict will emerge and people’s true colors will be shown. Lanford Wilson’s Angels Fall trapped a group of people in a New Mexico mission in the wake of a nuclear accident forcing them to confront each other in a variety of ways. Theatre luminary Robert Brustein’s new play places Shakespeare in a similar situation, only instead of a potential nuclear holocaust, the Bard finds himself holed up in a tavern trying to stave off a different malevolent force: The Plague.

Although Brustein’s play (which premieres next month) is historical fiction, the Bubonic Plague (or Black Death) was still a very real danger in Shakespeare’s time. The Globe Theater (along with all other public houses of entertainment) was shut down on several occasions to minimize the person-to-person contact that helped spread the disease. Presumably, one of the questions that will be raised by Brustein’s play is what impact this had on our Will as a person and as a writer. Furthermore, how did an audience that lived in regular fear of horrible death respond to the many fictional deaths Shakespeare created onstage? Whether pretty, like the poetic suicides of Romeo and Juliet, or grisly, as in Macbeth’s beheading, death was a big part of Shakespeare’s ouevre. In either case, can we read between the lines and see glimpses of the dark realities the Plague brought to Elizabethan England?