Hamlet Globe to Globe

With candor, humor, and erudition, English theater director Dromgoole (Will and Me) tells the incredible story of how, from 2014 to 2016, London’s Globe Theatre company performed Hamlet all over the world, in nearly 200 countries. The basic point of both the book and tour is that Shakespeare’s masterwork is universal and timeless. Readers get an informal history of the play’s origins, the state of the theater in Shakespeare’s time, and the ways the play has been produced between then and now. Dromgoole, executive director of the Globe from 2005 to 2016, draws on his vast knowledge of Shakespeare to explain in great detail what the play communicates and how the audience in each country relates to that. He is humble about the larger ramifications of the Globe Theatre’s remarkable feat, but justifiably proud of what his actors and stage crew accomplished. Dromgoole is wise and witty; thoughtful, self-assured, even cocky; and, at times, verbose and esoteric. But he is never dull. His mission was to bring Hamlet to the world to show that Hamlet is the world, and he succeeded admirably. A wide readership, not just Shakespeare buffs and scholars, can enjoy this book. [em]Agent: Patrick Walsh, Canongate Books (U.K.). (May) [/em]