Hamlet in the Vatican at the end of two year world tour

(Vatican Radio) It’s the longest and most performed of all Shakespeare’s plays. A tale of complex family relationships and conflicting human emotions. One of the greatest tragedies of all times, yet featuring characters whose warmth and humour have a universal appeal.

Hamlet has been translated into over a hundred languages and is taught to students in countries all over the world. But a few years ago, the Globe Theatre in London came up with the incredibly ambitious project of taking a production of the play to every country of the world to mark the 450th anniversary of William Shakespeare’s birth.

'Globe to globe' tour

The tour, entitled 'Globe to Globe' has been unfolding over the past two years and has seen the play performed in every imaginable venue, from a roadside in Cameroun to half a dozen refugee camps, from the Arctic Circle to the ancient Alexandria library in Egypt.

Just before returning to London, the cast also came to give a performance here in the Vatican on Wednesday, organised with the help of the British Embassy to the Holy See and the Pontifical Council for Culture.

Naeem Hayat is one of the actors playing Hamlet with the Globe’s multicultural cast. He talked to Philippa Hitchen about the project and about some of the most moving moments of the tour..

Listen: 

Naeem explains that the idea was born out of a festival held in London in 2012 when 37 companies from around the world were invited to the Globe theatre to perform a Shakespeare play in their native language....

He says the multicultural cast is both an indication of the talent in British theatre, but also a way of connecting with audiences who "see someone who looks like them and think, maybe I could do that too"

Syrian refugees in Lebanon

Speaking of the most poignant moments on the tour, Naeem says performing in the Zaatari refugee camp in Lebanon was very moving, since it was not safe for them to get in and out of Syria. But he said it also highlighted "an intrinsic part of the tour" which is "trying to play to the people of a place"...

He says the cast has also played in the most prestigious theatres in Eastern Europe and in ancient amphitheatres in Cyprus and Jordan. We are the "luckiest company in the world", he says, since "we get to reach people who don't normally get to see Shakespeare, but we also get insight and access that others don't have"...