The Rose Playhouse
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roseplayhouse.bsky.social
The Rose Playhouse
@roseplayhouse.bsky.social
4.1K followers 310 following 86 posts
Bankside's first theatre

Built by Philip Henslowe 1587, rediscovered 1989

Original home of plays by Shakespeare, Marlowe, Kyd & many others

Scheduled Monument & Registered Charity

www.roseplayhouse.org.uk

Rose Theatre Trust
56 Park St, London SE1 9AR
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roseplayhouse.bsky.social
Sat 3 Jan at 1pm & 3pm

DISCOVERY DAY:
TWELFTH NIGHT CELEBRATION

Organised by The Friends of The Rose

Join us on-site at The Rose Playhouse to discover how Twelfth Night was celebrated in Shakespeare's day!

Tickets: £10 public / £7 Friends

More info & book: www.roseplayhouse.org.uk/whats-on
Infographic, using just words with The Rose Playhouse's logo, saying: Discovery Day, Organised by The Friends of The Rose. Twelfth Night Celebration. Saturday 3 Jan 2026 at 1pm & 3pm. Tickets £10 public, £7 Friends of The Rose.
December 12, 2025 at 11:27 AM
roseplayhouse.bsky.social
Mon 8 Dec @ 6.30pm online

BEASTS OF BANKSIDE
Dr Liam Lewis, Dr Lizzie Wright
& Professor Hannah O’Regan

The @archaeobears.bsky.social team share their latest research into the lives of the animals performing in the bear-baiting arenas that stood next to The Rose.

www.roseplayhouse.org.uk/whats-on
Infographic with a woodcut showing dogs attacking a bear taken from Antibossicon by William Lilly, published in 1521. (Used by permission of the Folger Shakespeare Library under a Creative Commons license). The text reads: Researching The Rose Monday evening online talks. Dr Liam Lewis, Dr Lizzie Wright & Professor Hannah O'Regan. "Beasts of Bankside" 6.30pm online, Mon 8 Dec
November 27, 2025 at 2:15 PM
roseplayhouse.bsky.social
Sat 6 Dec @ 2pm at The Rose

CAROL CONCERT
An afternoon of music & song

Celebrate Christmas with us, as our annual Rose Friends & Family Seasonal Celebration returns!

Entry includes mince pies & warm mulled wine

Audience participation will be encouraged...

Book: www.roseplayhouse.org.uk/whats-on
Infographic, reading: Carol Concert Celebrate Christmas at The Rose Playhouse! An afternoon of music and song Mince pies – mulled wine – tombola Organised by The Friends of The Rose With the Hi Lo Singers 2pm - 5pm Sat 6 Dec Tickets: £15 / Friends £12
November 17, 2025 at 1:48 PM
roseplayhouse.bsky.social
We were delighted to welcome Jessie Buckley back to The Rose last week, for her interview with @cbssundaymorning.bsky.social about her life and career, and her new film Hamnet.

She wanted to be here, because it's where her journey performing Shakespeare began.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3q6FdgxwOE
November 11, 2025 at 1:46 PM
roseplayhouse.bsky.social
Mon 24 Nov @ 6.30pm online

JOAN ALLEYN – NO MOUSE

Join Calista Lucy, former Keeper of the Archive at Dulwich College, as she pieces together the biography of Joan Alleyn, step-daughter of The Rose's owner, Philip Henslowe, & wife of Edward Alleyn, its star actor.

www.roseplayhouse.org.uk/whats-on
Infographic, together with a photo of the speaker, that reads: Researching The Rose Monday evening online talks CALISTA LUCY Joan Alleyn – No Mouse 6.30pm online Mon 24 Nov 2025
November 11, 2025 at 12:58 PM
roseplayhouse.bsky.social
Thanks Heather – cheers!
Tudor woodcut of a man drinking
November 10, 2025 at 10:12 PM
roseplayhouse.bsky.social
Monday 10 November
@ 7.30pm online

PUB CRAWLING WITH PLAYHOUSES

Join Professor Laurie Johnson @lostplayhouse.bsky.social for a ramble around the inns, taverns & ale-houses of Elizabethan London, to discover their role in the emergence of playhouse culture.

Book: www.roseplayhouse.org.uk/whats-on
Infographic, with headshot of the speaker: Researching The Rose, Monday Evening online talks. Professor Laurie Johnson – Pub Crawling With Playhouses. 7.30pm 10 November 2025
November 3, 2025 at 3:45 PM
roseplayhouse.bsky.social
Sat 1 Nov @ 2pm onsite

PLAY READING: RICHARD II

Find out about cue scripts – what they were and how Elizabethan actors used them to learn their parts.

Then watch or take part in a one hour long version of Shakespeare's Richard II.

Roles drawn from a hat & scripts provided.

Book: bit.ly/4o0MTgH
Text infographic for Rose Playhouse Discovery Day play reading of William Shakespeare's Richard II, Sat 1 Nov at 2pm onsite, tickets: watch £5, take part £10 / £7 (Friends) - organised by The Friends of The Rose
October 21, 2025 at 3:07 PM
roseplayhouse.bsky.social
Monday 27 October, at 6.30pm online

INTRODUCING PHILIP HENSLOWE'S ROSE

Join Professor Grace Ioppolo, @profshakespeare.bsky.social, Founder & Director of the Henslowe-Alleyn Digitisation Project, as she examines the business partnerships that built The Rose.

More info & book: bit.ly/4nMtaBv
Infographic with talk title, time & date, and a headshot photo of Professor Grace Ioppolo
October 17, 2025 at 1:16 PM
roseplayhouse.bsky.social
Sat 25 Oct @ 1pm & 3pm onsite

THE ALLEYNS’ 433rd WEDDING ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION

Discover how an aspiring middle-class Elizabethan couple would celebrate their wedding anniversary.

Enjoy a few Tudor sweetmeats, and join in with the dancing!

More info & book: www.roseplayhouse.org.uk/whats-on
October 15, 2025 at 1:00 PM
roseplayhouse.bsky.social
6.30pm TONIGHT

Join Helen Chaloner & David Prescott from @literatureworks.bsky.social as they introduce the new Page of Plymouth project.

Actors Beth Park & Tim Frances will be there to read extracts from pamphlets & ballads about the murder that Ben Jonson & Thomas Dekker turned into a Rose play.
October 13, 2025 at 12:40 PM
roseplayhouse.bsky.social
Our new season of online talks starts this Monday, 13 Oct

Discover the lost domestic tragedy Page of Plymouth, & the new @literatureworks.bsky.social project centred on it, looking at theatre, culture & narratives of ordinary lives in Plymouth then & now

More info & book: bit.ly/3WvdoyH

[thread]👇
Infographic for the online talk, called 'Page of Plymouth: Ben Jonson & Thomas Dekker's Lost Play', with the time and date – 6.30pm 13 Oct – and photos of Helen Chaloner and David Prescott, the two speakers.
October 10, 2025 at 3:17 PM
roseplayhouse.bsky.social
Mon 13 Oct @ 6.30pm online

PAGE OF PLYMOUTH
Ben Jonson & Thomas Dekker's Lost Play

An introduction to the lost 1599 domestic tragedy about the murder of goldsmith George Page by his young wife, & the new project centred on it looking at Plymouth lives then & now.

www.roseplayhouse.org.uk/whats-on
Infographic, reading: Researching The Rose, Monday evening online talks. Helen Chaloner & David Prescott – Page of Plymouth: Ben Jonson & Thomas Dekker's Lost Play. 6.30-7.30pm, 13 October 2025. Presented in conjunction with Literature Works. On right are headshot photographs of the two speakers side by side.
September 30, 2025 at 1:32 PM
roseplayhouse.bsky.social
Sat 20 Sept, 12noon-8.30pm
THE 8th ROSE READATHON

Our hugely popular fund-raiser returns!

Choose to watch or take part, as we gallop through 1hr versions of six plays by Shakespeare, Marlowe & Jonson.

Roles drawn from a hat & scripts provided.

More info & book: www.roseplayhouse.org.uk/whats-on
Infographic, with date, times & ticket prices (per play: £10 to take part, £5 to watch) in modern red type, together with a jumble of the titles in old fashioned black type taken from the original printings of the six plays in the Readathon: Twelfth Night, The Alchemist, Much Ado About Nothing, Macbeth, The Massacre at Paris, and The Comedy of Errors.
September 2, 2025 at 11:43 AM
roseplayhouse.bsky.social
We're open on selected days this August, so why not see the archaeological remains of Bankside's first theatre?

£6 / £20 family of 4
Kids 12yrs & under go FREE

No need to book – just pay on the door

+ we have a new free digital guide you can use!

Find out more www.roseplayhouse.org.uk/whats-on
An infographic with details of our August Summer Holiday Openings, between 12 noon and 4pm on Fri 8th & 9th, Fri 15th & 16th, Fri 22nd, and Sat 30th. Ticket prices are £6 for adults and teenagers, with a £20 ticket for a family of four. Accompanied kids 12 years and under go FREE. In the top left corner the usual round red Rose logo is in the middle of a seventeenth century engraving of the sun, with black wavey sun rays surrounding it. The words 'August Summer Holiday Openings' are in different style Elizabethan print fonts, with the letters all at slightly different angles to each other and not laid out in straight lines – it looks a little like the letters have been strung on holiday bunting and are waving in the summer breeze...
August 7, 2025 at 12:30 PM
roseplayhouse.bsky.social
The Rose was the first theatre on Bankside, but the very first south of the Thames was built a mile away in Elephant & Castle in the mid-1570s.

Henslowe records receipts for 10 performances there in 1594, just before it closed.

Find out about the Newington Butts Playhouse @reedproject.bsky.social
The Records of Early English Drama online entry for the record of Newington Butts Playhouse contained in Philip Henslowe's Diary in 1594, giving the dates and receipts for ten performances there between 3-13 June
July 21, 2025 at 1:26 PM
roseplayhouse.bsky.social
We've replaced the rope-lights outlining The Rose's archaeological remains, currently preserved underwater.

The red lights mark the inner & outer walls of the seating galleries.

The blue lights show the front of the stage in 1587, and then pushed back in 1592/3.

Looking south-north, & east-west.
A photograph of the archaeological remains of The Rose Playhouse, currently preserved underwater in a very wide and tall basement underneath an office block, looking from the south to the north, with illuminated rope lights in red outlining the position of the inner and outer walls of the seating galleries that ring the yard, with two ropes of blue lights on the north side of the yard, marking the front of the stage in 1587, then pushed back a few feet when The Rose was expanded in 1592/3. The modern day raised viewing platform is just visible at the top right of the photograph. Light from the viewing platform is reflected on the surface of the water. A photograph of the archaeological remains of The Rose Playhouse, currently preserved underwater in a very wide and tall basement underneath an office block, looking down from the modern day viewing platform across the flooded space east to west. Illuminated rope lights in red just underneath the surface of the water outline the position of the inner and outer walls of the seating galleries that ring the yard. Immediately in front of the viewer are two nearly-parallel ropes of blue lights marking the front of the trapezoid-shaped stage in 1587, when the playhouse was first built, and then pushed back a few feet when The Rose was expanded in 1592/3.
July 18, 2025 at 1:21 PM
roseplayhouse.bsky.social
Sat 2 Aug @ 1pm & 3pm onsite
DISCOVERY DAY: COSTUME

Discover how a fashionable middle-class lady dressed in mid-1590s London.

You'll be shown a replica of the clothing that Joan Alleyn, step-daughter of The Rose's owner Philip Henslowe, wears in her famous portrait.

£7 / £5 - Book: bit.ly/407BAJS
Infographic with the event's title, date, time and ticket prices in large modern white text, superimposed on the top-half of the famous 1596 portrait of Joan Alleyn, the step-daughter of The Rose's owner Philip Henslowe, and the wife of its leading actor Edward Alleyn, that hangs in Dulwich Picture Gallery in London. In the painting, she wears a tall broad-brimmed black hat with a black hatband, that is tied onto her head with black ribbon over the white linen coif that covers most of her hair. She wears a very large cream-coloured ruff trimmed with lace. She wears a black gown, with very large shoulders that point upwards, which is open to show a cream stomacher underneath, with delicate floral blackwork embroidery. She stands against a plain background, has fair hair, pale skin and red lips, and looks serious as she displays her status through the fashionable and expensive clothing that she wears.
July 9, 2025 at 12:20 PM
roseplayhouse.bsky.social
Sat 20 Sept 2025
The 8th ROSE READATHON
12 noon - 8.30pm

Our popular fundraiser returns, with plays by Shakespeare, Marlowe & Ben Jonson

Watch or take part. Scripts provided & roles drawn from a hat

Each play lasts 1 hour. Join us for one or all six!

Tickets per play: £10/£5
Book: bit.ly/4eCBhge
Infographic for the 8th Rose Readathon, with details of date, time and ticket prices in modern red type, with the a jumble of the play titles in old-fashioned black typefaces set at different angles of each of the six plays to be performed, taken from their original printings. The play-titles are: Twelfth Night, The Alchemist, Much Ado About Nothing, Macbeth, The Comedy of Errors, and The Massacre at Paris.
July 7, 2025 at 1:39 PM
roseplayhouse.bsky.social
Sat 5 July @ 1pm & 3pm
DISCOVERY DAY: ARCHAEOLOGY
Tickets: £7/£5 Book: bit.ly/4elAlMZ

Come and see the archaeological site of The Rose Playhouse, learn how its remains are preserved, and discover what the future holds.

You'll be able to handle objects from the period, similar to those found here.
Infographic, with the text of the date and time of The Rose's Discovery Day event about archaeology superimposed on a close-up photograph of broken pieces of green ceramic Tudor money-boxes found at the site
June 26, 2025 at 3:02 PM
roseplayhouse.bsky.social
Sat 21 June @ 3pm
DISCOVERY DAY: PLAY READING

A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM

Celebrate the Summer solstice at The Rose with a 1 hour unrehearsed script-in-hand reading of Shakespeare’s magical comedy.

You can take part – roles drawn from a hat & scripts provided – or just watch!

Book: bit.ly/4klTi3P
Infographic with black and red text for the play reading of William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream at The Rose Playhouse on Bankside, with details of the date – Saturday 21 June at 3pm – and ticket prices – £5 to watch, and £7 0r £10 to take part. Organised by The Friends of The Rose.
May 29, 2025 at 12:22 PM
roseplayhouse.bsky.social
Sat 3 MAY @ 1pm & 3pm onsite
DISCOVERY DAY: ARCHAEOLOGY
Tickets £7/£5 : bit.ly/4cLMWbs

See the archaeological site of The Rose Playhouse, learn how its remains are preserved, and discover what the future holds.

You'll be able to handle objects from the period, similar to those found at the site.
An infographic with the title, date and ticket prices of the event, set against a detail of a photograph of the green ceramic tops of broken pottery money-pots, used for gathering pennies from audience members for admission to the theatre, which were amongst archaeological finds discovered at The Rose.
April 25, 2025 at 12:25 PM
roseplayhouse.bsky.social
Sat 5 April @ 1pm & 3pm, onsite at The Rose
A TUDOR EASTER
£10 / £7 (Friends).
Book: bit.ly/3DLhRHW

Discover how Elizabethans celebrated the end of Lent.

With a traditional mummer's play and talks on Easter customs, culture & food, you can try a sample or two or even join in with the dancing!
April 2, 2025 at 12:24 PM
roseplayhouse.bsky.social
Sat 5 April, 1pm & 3pm, onsite at The Rose
A TUDOR EASTER
£10 / £7 (Friends). Book: bit.ly/3DLhRHW

Discover how Elizabethans celebrated the end of Lent.

With a traditional mummer's play and talks on Easter customs, culture & food, you can try a sample or two or even join in with the dancing!
March 16, 2025 at 1:39 PM
roseplayhouse.bsky.social
TOMORROW
SAT 1 March @ 1pm & 3pm

DISCOVERY DAY - COSTUME

Join us onsite as The Friends of The Rose show & explain a replica of the clothing Edward Alleyn, The Rose's leading actor, wears in his famous portrait, remade for Dulwich College

Tickets: £7 / £5 Friends & Under-12s

Book: bit.ly/3CLB6AH
February 28, 2025 at 1:23 PM