The Sam Wanamaker Playhouse is a London theatre in the Southwark area, which is in partnership with the Globe Theatre on Bankside to form the Shakespeare’s Globe group of theatres. The theatre is the style of 17th century indoor theatres and is loosely based around Blackfriars Theatre. It opened in January 2014 and is named after Sam Wanamaker, the founder of the Shakespeare’s Globe Trust.

The exterior shell of the theatre was designed to contain an auditorium replicated from the sixteenth-century Blackfriars Theatre from the opposite side of the Thames. However, the drawings that were used as a basis for the blueprints were eventually seen as approximate drawings of the Blackfriars and so they were used as an inspiration rather than a replica for the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse. The auditorium was built with a traditional thrust stage, a musician’s gallery, a pit and two U-shaped galleries. It is an intimate space with a capacity of 340 seats.

Despite its artistic connection with Shakespeare, the first production presented in the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse was The Duchess Of Malfi, a Jacobean tragedy by John Webster. Since then it has hosted several Shakespearean plays, classic revivals, modern adaptations, and educational talks, including the hosting of live podcasts.