Hamlet, Globe to Globe

Two Years, 190,000 Miles, 197 Countries, One Play

Dominic Dromgoole, Michael Gallagher

• Publisher: Grove Press
• Year: 2017
• Print ISBN:
  9780802127969
• eBook ISBN:
  9780802189684
• Topic: Personal Development
• Subtopic: Theatre History & Criticism

A New York Times Notable Book: "A loving testament to the enduring ability of Shakespeare's play to connect in myriad ways across countries and cultures" ( Pop Matters).
 
For the 450th anniversary of Shakespeare's birth, the Globe Theatre undertook an unparalleled journey: to take Hamlet to every country on the planet, to share this beloved play with the entire world. The tour was the brainchild of Dominic Dromgoole, artistic director of the Globe, and in Hamlet: Globe to Globe, Dromgoole takes readers along with him.
 
From performing in sweltering deserts, ice-cold cathedrals, and heaving marketplaces, and despite food poisoning in Mexico, the threat of ambush in Somaliland, an Ebola epidemic in West Africa, and political upheaval in Ukraine, the Globe's players pushed on. Dromgoole shows us the world through the prism of Shakespeare—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. And thanks to this incredible undertaking, Dromgoole uses the world to glean new insight into this masterpiece, exploring the play's history, its meaning, and its pleasures.
 
"The Shakespearean equivalent of Bourdain's TV series, Parts Unknown. . . . [Dromgoole's] aesthetic principle, or unprincipled aesthetic, makes him a natural tour guide for global Shakespeare . . . A comic epic." — The Washington Post

Table of contents

• Hamlet Globe to Globe
• Also by Dominic Dromgoole
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Epigraph
• Contents
• Introduction
• 1 WHO'S THERE?
• 2 HONOURING THE UPBEAT
• 3 SETTING OUT THROUGH THE BALTICS
• 4 WORDS AND WALLS IN MITTELEUROPA
• 5 MADNESS IN MEXICO CITY
• 6 POLONIUS BY THE RED SEA
• 7 GOD ON A PACIFIC ISLAND
• 8 MURDER AND THE RICE FIELDS
• 9 SOLILOQUIES IN THE ANDES
• 10 NEWS FROM ENGLAND
• Photo Section
• 11 WITTENBERG IN THE DESERT
• 12 THE WORLD IN REVOLT
• 13 FIGHTING FOR EGGSHELLS AND REVENGE
• 14 MISSION CONTROL
• 15 FRIENDSHIP ON THE ROAD
• 16 CAESAR IN ZAATARI
• 17 EMBATTLED THEATRE NEAR THE GREAT RIFT VALLEY
• 18 THE REST IS SILENCE
• Conclusion
• Acknowledgements
• Index
• Back Cover