hamlet | Globe to Globe Hamlet

When Do Our Students Get to See Shakespeare`s Globe Theatre Perform Again

It was just unbelievable experiencing the mental picture that was first created when I was told that the Shakespeare`s Globe Theatre of London was coming to Liberia for the first time. I was even more excited when Jasmine, (B4 Youth Theatre`s Executive Director) informed me that 60 students from Montserrado County will have the memorable experience of going to see the Shakespeare`s Globe Theatre perform live “The Hamlet”, Shakespeare`s longest and most intriguing play. How can I help to get this realize was the next thing that excitedly came out of my mouth. Jasmine told me about how she intends to establish book clubs in 6 schools. “10 students from each school will receive a free copy of the “Hamlet” book and designated teachers to teach them the book since it` in old English”, she went on. Her last words about the book clubs sounded so fascinating that I further asked her about when we can get started with such an amazing initiative. “Now” was her answer.

Since that day, the Montserrado County Student Union partnered with the B4 Youth Theatre in establishing the book clubs in six schools. As the president of MONSU, I got in the field myself from school to school working on getting the book clubs started. What is even more interesting is that instead of just picking six schools out of the many high schools in Montserrado County, the B4 Youth Theatre developed a system that allowed students to post #B4YouthThreatreandworldHamlet# on her Facebook page. The reading club`s schools were selected randomly by the system and not us or them. After finally getting everything in order, the reading clubs were ready to go.

When we started the reading clubs, students were so excited to participate and they just could not stop asking questions and expressing gratitude for the opportunity. After more than six weeks of running the clubs, students were very curious to see the performance of Hamlet. Below are some of the scenes they just could not wait to see after reading the book:

“My most exciting event would be the death of Queen Getrude as she was a very deceitful woman” – student Jonel F. Kenneh, Saint Theresa Convent High School

“I will like to see the part where King Claudius finally learns that Prince Hamlet knows he is the murderer of his father – Student Courage K. Zoduah  - B. W. Harris Episcopal School

“I will like to see the scene where Hamlet confronts his mother about her actions – bringing herself low to getting marry to her late husband`s brother right after his death” – Student Chivin D. Mason, G. W. Gibson High School

“I will like to see the fencing match between Hamlet and Laertes, and the reaction of King Claudius when Prince Hamlet returns from exile” Student Fatumata Fofana, Muslim Congress High School

“I will like to see the part where Hamlet refused to killed Claudius because he was praying and that killing him while praying would sent him to heaven, and that he did not want” – Student Ben Toe – J. J. Ross high School.

“I will like to see the part where Hamlet was acting mad after he saw his father ghost” –, Student Faith Mathews, College of West Africa High School

At last, the day for the performance of the show arrived. At 2:00 pm, the 60 students were taken from their campuses and transported to the RLJ Resort located at Keneja, outside Monrovia. The build up and excitements were so high amongst the students and they kept discussion the scenes that they were excited to see. Finally the time for the show came and students patiently witnessed the live performance of Hamlet by the Shakespeare`s Globe Theatre of London.

After the show, here are what they had to say:

“I wish I had another opportunity to witness the Globe Theatre perform another Shakespeare`s play again” – Student Abraham Massaquoi – G. W. Gibson High School

I really enjoyed witnessing the Hamlet and the performance was very excellent” – Student Joyce F. Sampah, Saint Theresa Convent High School

I wish we had a Shakespeare`s Globe Theatre right here in Liberia so that we can watch things like this often. I really love this experience – Student Richelin N. Kardor

This is an eye opening for me and I am grateful to just be amongst the students who had the opportunity to be here” – Student Ericline Cassel, College of West Africa High School

I think the guy who performed the role of Prince Hamlet is just a genius, memorizing every bit of his role must really be a tough thing. The experience was amazing. – Student Esther J. Weah, J.J. Ross High School

I could not get my eyes off every scene and every scene was just full of suspense. I wish I can get to see this kind of performance for other Shakespeare`s plays like Macbeth, Julius Caesar etc. – Student Chernor Bah, Muslim Congress High School

Finally, the Montserrado County Student Union and all of our students are so much grateful to the B4 Youth Theatre, the Shakespeare`s Globe Theatre and all of the partners that made this show a success. Witnessing the performance of Hamlet was just so much incredible and the only question that I am left with now is: When do our students get to see such a performance again? 

-  by Mohammed Donzo Dolley, President of MONSU Liberia

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Having travelled over 190,000 miles, Hamlet will be performed at Kinnaird College for Women in Lahore. The College is the oldest and most distinguished women’s college of Pakistan. Tickets are available at Gate 1, Kinnaird College for Women Monday -...

Having travelled over 190,000 miles, Hamlet will be performed at Kinnaird College for Women in Lahore. The College is the oldest and most distinguished women’s college of Pakistan. Tickets are available at Gate 1, Kinnaird College for Women Monday - Friday (10am - 3pm). For security reasons CNIC is required for ticket purchase.

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UNESCO Show for Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso

Due to security reasons we were unable to perform in Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso during our two year tour. Instead we will be reaching audiences from these countries who are living in France for a special one off performance at the UNESCO Headquarters. We are delighted to be working with UNESCO after been granted patronage for the project in 2014.

The show will be on 28 March in Paris. To book, follow the links:

MALI: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/hamlet-at-the-unesco-headquarters-paris-m-tickets-23813049472 

BURKINA FASO: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/copy-of-hamlet-at-the-unesco-headquarters-paris-b-tickets-23823639146

NIGER: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/copy-of-copy-of-hamlet-at-the-unesco-headquarters-paris-n-tickets-23823723398

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International School of Monaco students review Hamlet

On the 29th of February 2016, Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre’s performers visited Monaco in the Columbus Hotel as part of their “Globe to Globe” goal of performing ‘Hamlet’ in every country in the world over two years. The International School of Monaco, in particular the Year 12 English Literature class, was given the incredible opportunity to watch this performance and be given an unforgettable experience right on our doorstep.

‘Hamlet’ was performed by eight actors constantly changing characters and costumes with two crew members who helped with the live music and changing the set. The play was presented with a simplistic army green backdrop to be used as wings. Lights were shone on the actors and on the audience to give the greatest feeling of being in the open-air Globe Theatre while also providing as much involvement as possible for the audience to feel part of the Shakespeare team during those two hours and forty minutes. This tightly put-together production with smooth scene changes and clear storytelling that is both thrilling and exceptional is a cultural opportunity of a life time; no actor pulls focus when they shouldn’t, the chemistry between the actors is outstanding. The students at ISM particularly enjoyed Phoebe Fildes’ performance as Ophelia becoming mad and Ladi Emeruwa’s talented interpretation of Hamlet throughout the play. All actors contributed to the fullest to make this play a powerful, profound and stimulating experience.

Beatrice Alessi and Tessa Cournoyer, Year 12.

The International School of Monaco

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Reflections on Hamlet at Calais “Jungle”

There is a general consensus amongst those of us who went to Calais that it will be some time before we are all able to process that experience. That certainly rings true for me.

But having been asked to try to put some thoughts down in a coherent form, I will try to do just that here.

An early train from London meant our arrival in Calais at 09.00am. And that in itself is hard to fathom – this place really is on our doorstep. That simile doesn’t smack the emotional punch it sort of needs to: let’s try, Stratford-upon-Avon is further from the Globe than Calais is.

Getting off the train was bleak. Really really cold – and we were at least adequately dressed for it. The drive to the Jungle takes you on one passing swoop of the site before exiting off towards the port and back on yourself along the sliproad which leads to the site’s main entrance. It serves both as a final warning  - almost, ‘are you sure you want to do this?’ – and a clear explanation of quite why the site has grown up where it has. The port is right there. The lorries thundering past on the motorway are right there.

You slow to a crawl on entering the site – the ground is pitted and rock-strewn, and the tracks are only one vehicle wide. Our one route to the Good Chance tent site was temporarily blocked by a truck provided by the French government to service the portaloos, so we half-heartedly drove a little further on before doubling back and deciding to walk the final few metres with the gear we had bought for the show. It meant we saw the site where the chapel has stood before being pulled down only a few days earlier. We saw a couple of make-shift cafes, and volunteer-run book stalls, but mainly it presented us with rows of cobbled together shacks - creative combinations of tarpaulin and sticks of wood, lashed together with lengths of salvaged polyester rope - interspersed with the sort of tents you see abandoned in the fields of Glastonbury the morning after the night before. In short, nothing you’d want to brave any sort of February in.

I counted myself lucky that I had a purpose that day. We arrived to find a stage half-built, and a lot of cold but determined folk working to create a level surface, and spaces in the tent for the company to change and warm up. They would be arriving in 2 hours, and we needed to have got at least part of the set up for them, and to have made the Good Chance Calais’ dome tent habitable for the remainder of the day. Thank goodness for something to focus on that meant my brain was at least partly occupied.

In some strange respects the morning passed as it would on any other site. Answering questions about how best to position things, how much space is needed in front of this piece of set, is this enough space for 4 actors to get changed? We all looked up at the sky and debated the chance of rain (absolutely standard behaviour for a) Brits and b) Brits who do outdoor touring). As the stage took shape, more and more people gathered, curious as to what we were up to. The actors arrived and chatted to those who were having a look, then took themselves into the tent to get ready. The synopsis of the show got handed out (in English, French, Arabic, Farsi, Pashto and Kurdish), a violin-playing volunteer stood centre stage and struck up her instrument, popcorn in paper bags was handed out by the community kitchen, and slowly people sat themselves on the coir matting and took up their positions all around the performance area.

And then the show started, and people watched, chatted, cheered, laughed, and concentrated. But we were in the infamous ‘Jungle’ and our audience were people at a catastrophically low point in their lives, with no official recognition from the country they were situated in and certainly no obvious affection from the country they are all so desperate to get to. I don’t really feel able to comment honestly here on the response to the show as I spent my time backstage keeping an eye on how everything was progressing. But I’m very clear that there was a response, a whole range of responses in fact, and that is what I think is important about that day. That we turned up and did something, in the hope that those people might be interested. Nothing more, and certainly nothing less. 

As soon as the show finished we began dismantling what had only just been built. As I hauled myself up into the back of a van, carrying one of end of a section of metal structure, I nearly dropped the thing in fright when I realised there was a person, wrapped up in tarpaulins and hidden from direct sight, on the the floor of the van previously where I’d been about to drop my end of the metalwork. He announced his presence at the last minute by wriggling out of his tarpaulin and asking “London?”, with an air of optimism. “Sorry, no, this van’s staying in France”. (which was true) “France?” “Yes, France. Calais, in fact.” This was greeted by a chorus of laughter from the men surrounding the truck and curious as to what was happening. Derisive, but still cheerful hoots of “Ha! Calais” greeted our wannabe stowaway as he clambered out of his self-made cocoon. I got the distinct impression that he hadn’t had any serious hopes that our van would get him to the UK, in fact I genuinely think he’d spotted the chance to hunker down somewhere, if not warm, then at least out of the wind for half a hour. I don’t blame him.  

Once he’d dusted himself off, and finally been convinced that this particular van was of no use to him, he cheerfully dismissed from the back of it, and spent the next ten minutes helping us load up. 

I’ve never been so relieved to be out of place as I was when we drove out later that afternoon, and never has the phrase ‘an accident of birth’ been quite so meaningful.

- by Tamsin Mehta, Associate Producer

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The People of Yemen

Somewhere in the east of Djibouti, just outside a tiny village called Obock, the UNHCR settled a refugee camp for thousands of migrants arriving by boat from Yemen, just on the other side of the Gulf of Aden, where the Red Sea opens up. Over 4,000 people have arrived in this camp since it opened in April 2015, they live in tents, it has two schools, running water and electricity. But not a theatre. Until last week.

It was very early on a Saturday morning when we got on several vehicles to drive across the country from Djibouti City to Obock. We passed several nomadic settlements, and the scenery was manly dominated by sandy mountains, ocean and goats. Many, many goats.

We reached the camp by midday and were welcomed by the staff members, a small and wonderful team who quickly showed us to our allocated performance area and helped us start with the build. We would use one of the partners tents as a backdrop for our set, and this would also act as dressing room for the company together with our minibus, parked just behind it. We set some UNHCR plastic covers on the floor of the tent and whilst the cast got ready and run over their lines (some amends had to be made in this occasion as we were two actors down due to illness, so the wonderful John Dougall was to perform Polonius AND Claudius at the same time!); the stage managers started building the set and getting costumes in place quickly with the help of, now, many of the people who started gathering around us.

Kids came in dozens, and played with us whilst observing with wide eyes how we kept bringing things out of trunks and preparing to do our show. They naturally gathered in a semi-circle around us, and waited patiently for us to be ready. The sun was high up still, but the clock was against us, as we had no extra lights, so we relied solely on daylight.

It was 3pm when our full company stood in front of over 300 Yemeni refugees and started introducing themselves, one by one they stepped to the front, and after very appreciated Salam Alaikum, they would say the name of the character they were to play. Excitement rose when some of our cast kept naming different roles! Some of them can play up to 8 parts per show! And today, for the first time ever, John doubling up Polonius and Claudius caused a lot of excitement in the company as well.

Before the show and during the interval, Amira who was our contact in UNHCR told the audience in Arabic a brief synopsis of each part of the show, and we also circulated synopsis of the scenes in both Arabic and English. A lot of the audience members had read or studied the play in University, and as they told me, used to go to the theatre back in Yemen, mainly in Aden.

Men, women and children of all ages gathered together and enjoyed the performance, sitting on the floor, standing, sitting on plastic chairs. At one point I sat down during the show with all the kids and chatted to three young ladies who had studied in London and who were huge Shakespeare fans; they told the little ones the story and helped them understand the plot. People clapped on every hug; they laughed during the Hamlet mad scene, and felt very sorry for Ophelia when she sang her songs. But what they really enjoyed was the duel between Hamlet and Laertes. And the music of course!

I met Adib, who used to work as an oil engineer in Aden and was now the headmaster of the secondary school. Adib was following the story with the synopsis we handed and was going to work on the story the following day at school. He said to me “how come you came here? Why did you come? We are so far away.” I told Adib that since it was not possible for us to travel to Yemen due to the political circumstances, we looked for the place where the Yemenis would be. After all, countries are made of people, and since they were all there, they were Yemen. “Yes” said Adib with a big smile. “We are Yemen. We are the people from Yemen. We thank you for this.”    

A little girl called Nada held my hand the entire day, and walked around with me during the show whilst I talked to people. She loved spying backstage and seeing what the stage managers were up to, so we let her play one of our instruments backstage in the last scene. Nada was ecstatic! Once we finished and with help from another woman who translated, she asked me if we were coming back the next day.

We finished our show to a big round of applauses and everyone came straight in to say hi to the actors and to ask for photos. During the get out, even more of the audience helped us, and thus we packed in record time, just when the sun was setting down. When we were packing all the kids commented on their favourite moments and I asked them why they thought Hamlet was upset, what was the matter with him…

“Oh he was just playing-look he’s happy now” someone said pointing at Naeem who played Hamlet that day-and he was indeed-we all were. Happy and dusty surrounded by the amazing people from Yemen.

A lot of this makes me reflect on the show itself: after the players come on stage, Hamlet has a monologue in which he questions his ability to feel, in comparison to the Player who can cry on stage representing stories that were not his own. The people we met in Obock fled from civil war, lost their homes and most of their families and they live in very extreme circumstances, and you would wonder how they could ever appreciate the fact that we bring a show to them, a story that comes from so far away….

I got the answer whilst watching them throughout the performance. Their faces lit and their mood changed, they smiled, they sang and danced with us, they enjoyed themselves and had fun. They travelled to a different place, far far away, in the cold grounds of Denmark, and, at least for a little while, they were just like anyone else, like the thousands of people who watched our show across the 160 countries that we have visited in the past 21 months.  They were just people watching a show, not refugees, not displaced, not victims. Just people. The people of Yemen.  

- by Malú Ansaldo, International Tour Associate

Photos by Monty Hicks

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This Friday Hamlet is coming to Andorra! On 4 March at 20:00 Comú de Sant Julià de Lòria will host our visit to the 173rd country in our 2-year tour. We’re nearing the end of our journey, and if you live in southern Europe, this might be your last...

This Friday Hamlet is coming to Andorra! On 4 March at 20:00 Comú de Sant Julià de Lòria will host our visit to the 173rd country in our 2-year tour.

We’re nearing the end of our journey, and if you live in southern Europe, this might be your last chance to see the show. We have 300 tickets available for now, so get yours before they’re gone. 

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