If Shakespeare were still alive he would have turned 450 today. April 23 is the most likely date of his birth in 1564, anyway. We don't know for sure. One thing we can be pretty sure of is that he'd be amazed at how his works have lasted and spread around the world. In honor of his approaching 450th, the Globe Theatre is starting a worldwide Hamlet tour today, intending to perform the play in every country in the world.
It's called the Globe Theatre, after all. Why shouldn't its production of Hamlet, the most iconic of the Bard's world-famous plays, travel the actual planet? As Artistic Director Dominic Dromgoole told NPR, "The great thing about bold and stupid ideas is that people understand them very swiftly. So when we go out to people around the world and say, very simply, 'We are taking Hamlet to every country in the world,' they immediately get the fun of it and the ambition of it."
Touring Hamlet is no modern idea. Centuries ago Shakespeare's plays traveled to many non-English-speaking lands, overcoming some of the language barrier by emphasizing the cruder physicality of the action. The plays, Dromgoole says, "were written to tour as well as to play to the Globe, so we wanted to reflect some of that spirit."
The set consists, pretty much, of the touring company's suitcases. They will have to be some pretty big suitcases, I expect--the tour lasts two years, with a final performance in Elsinore (Helsingør, Denmark) where Shakespeare set the play. Says Dromgoole of Hamlet, "It has something to give wherever it goes in the world…and also it's beautiful."
