Much Ado About Nothing has a Polynesian flavour at the Pop-Up Globe. Melbourne is the second city in the world to host the Pop-Up Globe, after two seasons in Auckland, the first of which coincided with the 400th anniversary of the great writer's death. So why does his work fascinate more than four centuries on? His rendering of those core traits and his insight into the human condition is clearly a factor, but the main reason is the writing. Shakespeare's language, his extraordinary ability to coin a phrase, elevates his work to some of the finest in the English language. Writer of 37 plays and 154 sonnets, Shakespeare is credited with inventing 1700-odd words. Our lexicon is peppered with phrases he invented. But when they were written, his plays were designed first and foremost to be performed. Gregory argues the way Shakespeare is often taught is inherently wrong. "It's like telling children that Mozart is a genius and someone would hand out the scores and say 'You be the piccolo, you be the violin, and now we're going to hum it together'. Let's go and see an amateur performance of people who don't really play Mozart very often…"

The Pop-Up Globe, seen during its successful run in Auckland, is coming to Melbourne in September. Through performance, the characters come alive, the humour is readily apparent, the drama is more intense. Most importantly, the language when spoken is far more accessible and meaningful. One of the roadblocks for many when it comes to these great works is the language, which can seem dense and impenetrable. According to Gregory, in truth it is quite the contrary. "Shakespeare's language is mostly mono-syllabic: 'To be or not to be…'" As You Like It at the Pop-Up Globe, which is designed so the audience can get up close to the action on the stage. Even so, he says, in a performance it doesn't matter if you don't understand every word – the show keeps moving and the meaning becomes clear. "We do children a disservice by making them read Shakespeare as though it's a literary test. We should take them to see Shakespeare done by professionals."

So that's precisely what he set about doing. Gregory had long been fascinated by Shakespeare: as a child, his father had quoted the works to him, he studied and performed some of the plays at school and later he studied a doctorate in Shakespeare in Performance at Bristol University. A career in theatre followed – at 23, he staged Hamlet and Twelfth Night on the West End, worked with the British Touring Shakespeare Company and then at the Maltings Theatre in Berwick-upon-Tweed. Workers build the modern version of Shakespeare's Globe Theatre, a three-storey, 200-tonne building that houses 900 people. In 2012, he came back to his hometown, Auckland, and it was there that the idea for the Pop-Up Globe crystallised. Working with his business partner, Tobias Grant, and a core team, the idea was fleshed out. What he envisaged was a theatre based on the second of Shakespeare's Globes – the first having burnt down – built in 1614, in which the plays would be staged as they were in the 16th and 17th centuries. An open air theatre with a roof covering the stage, the Globe was designed so that attendees could get close to the action on stage. In contrast to the hushed audiences of today, the crowds at Jacobean and Elizabethan theatres were rowdy and social; they interacted with the performers, were served food and drink and attended for a rollicking evening out. That emphasis on having fun is inherent in the Pop-Up's philosophy. So too is the focus on accessibility. In Shakespeare's day, "groundlings" – named after fish that travel along the seabed with their mouths open, just as audiences would stand open-mouthed at moments of high drama – could pay a penny for standing room access. Tickets for Melbourne's "groundlings" will cost about $20. A bloody encounter from Pop-up Globe's Othello.

Exactly what the Globe looked like inside is a matter of some conjecture, although clues are provided through the plays. There was a balcony, several doors, columns and an onion dome in the roof, to allow light in and smoke from pyrotechnics out. Two inscriptions accompanied drawings of the sun and another of angels. One read: "All the world's a stage", the other '"Tis easier to rule the people than entertain them". Built to the exact exterior dimensions as the second Globe, the Pop-Up uses scaffolding technology devised by NZ company CamelSpace. In Melbourne, it will be located in King's Domain behind the Myer Music Bowl, in what will be temporarily known as Shakespeare's Gardens. More than 150 people are involved in the build, which takes about six weeks. Cast-wise, there are two companies of 15 people; the King's company is all male, because Shakespeare wrote for an all-male cast. About a quarter of the cast is from around the world, the rest are New Zealanders. A fight scene from Pop-up Globe's Henry V. Many aspects of the theatre, from the scenery through to the costumes, were hand-painted or hand-crafted in New Zealand. Jacobean effects are used wherever possible, such as a thunder machine made from several heavy sheets of metal. All productions feature live music and original compositions by the Pop-Up's music director, Paul McLaney, with no amplified sound. Four plays will be performed in Melbourne: As You Like It, Much Ado About Nothing – which has a rom-com feel according to its director – Henry V and Othello.

Pop-Up Globe founder Miles Gregory. The first two seasons of the Pop-Up Globe in Auckland attracted about 200,000 visitors. Gregory was thrilled to see so many young people come along. School groups were a significant part of the mix, but many came back again in their own time. The popularity of the shows in Auckland vindicated his idea that done properly, the works are as enticing to a modern audience as they were 400-odd years ago. He hopes "we can create a renaissance… in the way Shakespeare is popularised". He is particularly keen to appeal to "young people who perhaps come from difficult backgrounds, expecting not to understand anything, thinking Shakespeare is hard and he's pale and male and dead". "When they come here and they understand and they laugh and they join in … that confidence that comes with understanding Shakespeare is huge. What can't you do? What's harder [in their minds] than understanding Shakespeare?" What would the man himself have made of a temporary theatre built to emulate his Globe in a city – indeed a country – unknown in his day? That audiences continue to appreciate and enjoy his work is testimony to the brilliance of his writing, the universality of his themes and the strength of his characters.

Gregory says that as well as reflecting something of the world as it was then, the Pop-Up Globe serves a similar purpose to the original. "For us the shock of the old is equally surprising. It plays to the strength of the theatre. Theatre is about the connections between people. In a world where people seem to be retreating, to fluorescent lit boxes watching their own personalised TV channel, I think it's an amazing thing to bring people together." Kerrie O'Brien visited The Pop-Up Globe in Auckland courtesy of Live Nation. popupglobe.com.au FIGHT CLUB

As fight director, Alex Holloway is responsible for turning the Pop-up Globe's fight scenes into epic spectacles. His role encompasses everything from body language through to armies in combat – "any moment in any of the plays that have any aggression, even if it's a look or the way someone is standing, through to battle scenes or someone flying". Working in a confined space with the audience just metres away makes for a challenging brief. When he studied for his degree in Stage Combat, he was taught you can do almost anything, as long as it's safe. He went on to work in theatre in London for two years and moved to Auckland to work on the Globe in 2014. He also set up the New Zealand Stage Combat School, which runs workshops for schools, universities and industry professionals. "Even as a kid I would pick up a stick and it would become a sword. As a grown-up I'm still playing with swords, but I can justify it because I'm getting paid," he says. Preparing actors for anything physical falls into his domain – people going through trapdoors, getting hit, climbing, banging into things. Not surprisingly, Henry V is the biggest proposition in terms of straight fight scenes. Choreographing scenes with 16 or 17 actors wielding heavy swords with the audience metres away is no mean feat. The weapons used on stage are a similar weight to what would have been used back in the day – which means they're heavy. "We know that because [they're in] the Royal Armory, where swords such as the half hammond has survived. It weighs about 15kg. Fighting with the armour on as well is quite tiring."

Actors need to be the equivalent of match fit. Costumes often had to be taken in after weeks of intensive training, as many actors had lost weight. According to Holloway, the shows at the Globe are far more physical than a lot of theatre. For the first three weeks, he trains the actors in the basics. "I won't ever choreograph a fight without meeting all the actors first because I don't know their capabilities. [We] always have to start from the ground and go up. Start with the feet and make sure people can move properly, then go into the parry; from there I judge how someone is able to move. With the younger cast, we have them running across stage from one side to another; with the older cast members I ... have them walk from one place to another, which makes it all so much more realistic, because an older guy on the battlefield would fight like an older guy." Underlying his approach is the need to create a spectacle. A favourite moment for him is during a key scene in Henry V. "All of a sudden you have 300 people in the groundlings stamping and that causes everyone [in the theatre] to start stamping, and everyone rushing to the fight... People [in the audience] are covered in blood and it's almost like they're on the battlefield themselves." "

From the first season to the second, improvements were made to several of the productions. "The onion dome [added in the second season, allowing smoke to escape] is great, we used fire for the first time on stage. I wasn't happy with just some fire torches, I said 'let's shoot some flaming arrows', so we have archers up there." Pop culture, especially film and television, regularly depicts epic scenes, and as a theatre fight director Holloway is mindful of that. "Before I choreograph a show I always think what would I want to see? The archers, because Agincourt was all about the archers, we've managed to get that into the show. In Henry V, I want to see the hanging, I want to see blood. I want to see the danger and realism of a battle."