Churches and theatres – places in which speech, gesture and design combine to seek transcendence – are frequently used as metaphors for each other. In a thrilling new production of Shakespeare’s King John, these two traditions of ritual – the theatricality of religion, the priestliness of acting – inform and enrich each other. James Dacre, enterprising young artistic director of the Royal and Derngate theatres in Northampton, has noted that King John contains several references to his home town as well as frequent scenes – coronations, weddings, visits from a papal legate – that involve churches. So his co-production with the Globe Theatre in London is being staged, on a tour before reaching the Shakespearean replica, in three atmospheric churches