Theatre News

Globe tours Hamlet to every country in the world

Shakespeare’s Globe will produce an epic tour of Hamlet next year which aims to visit every country in the world in two years.

Directed by Dominic Dromgoole, the production marks a continuation of the Globe’s commitment to international Shakespeare following its Globe to Globe season in 2012, which saw all 37 Shakespeare plays performed in a different language by companies from around the world.

Shakespeare's Globe
Shakespeare’s Globe

Dromgoole said: “In 1608, only five years after it was written, Hamlet was performed on a boat – the Red Dragon – off the coast of Yemen. Just ten years later it was being toured extensively all over Northern Europe. The spirit of touring, and of communicating stories to fresh ears, was always central to Shakespeare’s work.

“We couldn’t be happier to be extending that mission even further. By train, coach, plane and boat we aim to take this wonderful, iconic, multifarious play to as many fresh ears as we possibly can.”

The tour, which will feature a company of eight actors, kicks off on 23 April 2014, the 450th anniversary of Shakespeare’s birth, and finishes on 23 April 2016, the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death.

This will also be the date of Dromgoole’s departure from the Globe, after a decade as artistic director (for more on this story click here).