Hamlet, Globe to Globe: Taking Shakespeare to Every Country in the World

In the middle of the Calais ‘Jungle’ refugee camp, Dominic Dromgoole watches from the makeshift wings, as Hamlet delivers his monologue. Four years earlier, Dromgoole, the artistic director of The Globe, came up with an idea. He would take Hamlet to every country on the planet. He would mark the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death by sharing his beloved playwright with the entire world. Over two full years, Dromgoole and The Globe players toured all seven continents performing the bard’s most famous tragedy in sweltering deserts, ice-cold cathedrals and heaving marketplaces – despite food poisoning in Mexico, the threat of ambush in Somaliland, an Ebola epidemic in West Africa and political upheaval in Ukraine. Hamlet Globe to Globe is an unprecedented theatrical adventure, in which Dromgoole shows us the world through the prism of Shakespeare. We see what the Danish prince means to the people of Sudan, the effect of Ophelia on the citizens of Costa Rica and how a sixteenth-century play can touch the lives of Syrian refugees, living in ragged tents, desperate to cross the English channel.We will witness Shakespeare’s power to transcend borders, to touch the human heart, and to truly bring the world closer together.

Reviews of Hamlet, Globe to Globe: Taking Shakespeare to Every Country in the World

The tireless Dromgoole goes on a journey that would kill most of us, and connects our greatest poet to every corner of the human experience. Utterly extraordinary — Emma Thompson Dominic Dromgoole's recounting of the Globe Theatre's exhausting global tour of Hamlet is exhilarating. The playing company's intrepid journey around the world – performing Hamlet's own troubled journey – succeeds in making the familiar unfamiliar and enables in turn a deeply illuminating journey into the play itself. — James Shapiro, author of 1599 and 1606 This is an amazing story about a bold and eye-popping journey. I loved it. Dominic Dromgoole writes about Shakespeare and touring the globe the way he ran The Globe – with passion, insight, relish and irresistible humour — Nicholas Hytner, The Artistic Director of London's National Theatre Praise for WILL AND ME: 'An absolute delight … utterly original and relishable' * Sunday Times * Friendly, inclusive, I warmed to it immediately … A terrific book * Evening Standard * Superb … thrillingly entertaining … throbs with vigour, honesty and passion * Daily Telegraph * Dromgoole is to the bard what Nick Hornby is to football * Sunday Telegraph * A record of a lifelong obsession – articulate, intelligent and passionately set down … Dromgoole's enthusiasm has a sincerity and warmth that are infectious * Observer * Irresistibly seductive * Independent on Sunday *