The Globe Theatre in central London. Photo: Stephen Kelly/ PA WireShakespeare’s Globe is set to celebrate the 450th anniversary of the Bard’s birth by taking a production of Hamlet to every country on earth.
The “unprecedented theatrical adventure” will travel across seven continents by boat, sleeper train, 4x4, tall ship, bus and aeroplane to some of the world’s most inaccessible places.
Shakespeare’s Globe said it aimed to perform the production at venues ranging from village squares and beaches to palaces and national theatres in 205 nations.
The cast of eight actors will begin the tour in 2014 on April 23, thought to be Shakespeare’s birthday, and will complete it at Shakespeare’s Globe in London on April 23,2016 – the 400th anniversary of his death.
Theatre director Peter Book said: “The six simplest words in the English language are To Be or Not to Be. There is hardly a corner of the planet where these words have not been translated.
“Even in English, those who can’t speak the language will at once recognise the sound and exclaim ‘Shakespeare!’”
He added: “Hamlet is the most all encompassing of Shakespeare’s plays. Everyone, young or old, can today find an immediate identification with its characters, their pains and their interrogations.”
The six simplest words in the English language are To Be or Not to Be
The Globe’s artistic director, Dominic Dromgoole, who is directing the production, said touring and “communicating stories to fresh ears” was always central to Shakespeare’s work.
“In 1608, only five years after it was written, Hamlet was performed on a boat – the Red Dragon – off the coast of Yemen. Just 10 years later it was being toured extensively all over Northern Europe,” he said.
Globe to Globe Hamlet follows the success of a project last year which saw Shakespeare’s plays performed in 37 different languages over six weeks at Shakespeare’s Globe. The play will be stripped down to two and a half hours and locations already booked include Elsinore in Denmark, where Shakespeare set the tragedy, and the Rift Valley in Kenya, which is said to be the cradle of human life.