A company of actors based at the Globe -- rebuilt not far from the spot where the original theatre stood in Elizabethan times -- will pack up props, costumes and musical instruments to tour Britain this summer in a blue camper van.

The group of eight actors will perform "Romeo and Juliet" at Glasgow's West End Festival, Leeds Castle in Kent, an Oxford University college and 13 other venues.

"The Globe was born out of a touring company culture, and that culture remained vital to it," Globe Artistic Director Dominic Dromgoole said in a statement.

"We are delighted to be exploring again the tradition of taking Shakespeare into non-theatrical spaces."

The tour of this stripped down version of Shakespeare's classic love tragedy is not motivated by the threat of plague or disapproval of the city's authorities as was the case in the 16th and 17th centuries when troupes of actors went on tour to get away from the capital.

Instead the group hope to "spread the Globe's ethos of making Shakespeare an event", producer James Erskine said.

Erskine, who would like to make touring theatre a repeated feature of the Globe's repertoire, expects the outdoor settings will make the productions more informal and attract a crowd rather than an audience.

The production, directed by Edward Dick, will climax with a performance at Lords Cricket Ground in London on September 2, known as the spiritual home of the summer game the British Empire gave the world.