Hamlet: Globe to Globe

Although it won’t be published until April, this book offers an optimistic note of hope to banish the darkness of what has, by any stretch of the imagination, been a bleak year. The context is this. Back in 2012, Shakespeare was at the heart of the cultural festival that accompanied the London Olympics. The main feature was the ambitious Globe to Globe festival, during which every one of Shakespeare’s plays was performed, each by a company from a different country, each in a different language. Buzzing from the success of that project, the team were looking for their next big adventure. And it was Dominic Dromgoole, then director of the Globe, who came up with a crazy idea during a genial away day. Why not tour Hamlet to every country in the world?

And so, on 23 April 2014, 450 years after Shakespeare’s birth, a skeleton company of sixteen people set out on their great journey. Exactly two years later, on 23 April 2016, the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death, the same company returned to the Globe. They’d visited 190 countries and performed in Roman amphitreatres, refugee camps, cavernous theatres and city squares to people of 197 nationalities. I followed the journey at the time via the Globe’s blog posts and was excited to think of this little band of brothers (and sisters) travelling across the continents, free of political or diplomatic impetus, simply filled with the ambition to travel, to meet and to tell a story.

Dromgoole doesn’t just write about the tour, which I suppose is what I was expecting – a diary of the trip, full of amusing or moving incidents. His chapters are structured around a variety of themes suggested by the play or its characters, and he deftly builds up three interwoven strands of story: the tour itself; the story of its creation; and a thorough critique of Hamlet as a play. His passionate knowledge of the language and period is a delight. I don’t read much theatre criticism and it was wonderful to be guided around the play by someone so steeped in its subtleties. Yes, there are moments when Dromgoole shades into luvvieness. But for the most part he is a sharp, funny, self-deprecating, enthusiastic narrator.

And in these days, when it’s so tempting to see darkness, corruption and destruction everywhere we turn, Dromgoole has a life-affirming vision that asserts the importance of the arts as a way to engage with other people. If you have the slightest interest in the Globe’s mission, or in Shakespeare’s plays and characterisation, then do consider this lively, glowing – if slightly sprawling – book. We are profoundly in need of messages of hope and, while Dromgoole isn’t arrogant enough to imagine that all wrongs can be righted with a good course of Hamlet, he does argue for the importance of being ready to go out, unhindered by the moral thicket of the modern world, and simply face the world with compassion, ready to share and ready to learn in return.

What an adventure it must have been.

For the full review, please visit my blog at the link given below:
https://theidlewoman.net/2016/12/31/hamlet-globe-to-globe-dominic-dromgoole/

Hamlet: Globe to Globe is a book about a huge project and one that those interested in Shakespearean theatre in the UK and beyond probably have heard about: Shakespeare’s Globe theatre took Hamlet on a tour to, as far as possible, every country in the world. In this book, Dominic Dromgoole describes their endeavours alongside thoughts on Hamlet and performing the play around the globe. Part memoir and part book about Hamlet and performance, Hamlet: Globe to Globe gives a sense of the excitement of the project whilst telling anecdotes about the reality of the undertaking.

Each chapter is focused around a theme and jumps between anecdotes about the tour and certain countries and Dromgoole’s discussions about Hamlet, which are fairly light and open, focused on character and performance. His vision of Hamlet as elusive and protean, as a play that should be less revered than actively used, fits with the book and project, suggesting that the play was right to be performed around the world in English. Whilst Dromgoole gives a rather romanticised image of Hamlet as a play at the beginning of the book, throughout the book he emphasises how it worked differently at different points in the tour, suggesting that he believes his romantic image of Hamlet as universal play full of human themes.

The specific anecdotes are the best part of the book, from playing in refugee camps and in hostile environments to the company doing speeches at the Globe in front of Obama. Political context is given for some of the performances and, though not perfect, shows an appreciation for the histories and contexts in which they ended up bringing their production. Descriptions of rotational casting practices and rehearsal methods adds theatrical interest, as does information about how they worked around some of the more difficult venue issues.

Hamlet: Globe to Globe is a subjective, endearing description of a touring production, one which accepts with self-deprecation that originally they naively believed they could change the world, but instead discovered that the world was a turbulent and difficult place, much like the world of the play.

As a student of Shakespeare and ardent supporter of the Globe I loved this mix of travelogue, they're history and historical & textual insight into Hamlet. Engagingly written and wonderfully detailed without being name dropping or sycophantic. I was lucky enough to see this play in its first tour of the UK and followed it around the world with interest.