Shakespeare’s Globe Hamlet Berths in Lagos

In commemoration of the 450th anniversary of the legendary playwright William Shakespeare’s birth, the Hamlet Globe to Globe hits Lagos on March 4 and 5, with performances scheduled for the MUSON Centre and St. Saviours’ School, Ikoyi.

The extraordinary theatrical ensemble tour opened at Shakespeare’s Globe, London, on 23 April 2014. This unprecedented theatrical adventure is scheduled to tour every single country on earth over two years. Directed by the Globe’s Artistic Director, Dominic Dromgoole, this UK theatre production is presenting Nigerian actor, Ladi Emeruwa, in the shared role of Hamlet, together with an impressive international cast and crew of 17.

Following rave performances at The Globe, in Wittenberg, in Tromsø within the Arctic Circle, in Moscow, through the Baltics, in Kiev, at the United Nations in New York, at the oldest theatre in Central America, the majestic Teatro Nacional de El Salvador, on the banks of the St Lawrence River in Canada, in the shadow of Mexico’s Yucatán Cathedral, at a beautiful marina in Antigua & Barbuda, on a mountainside in Guatemala, in St Kitts and

Nevis, in Poland, outdoors in Chilean parks, in Argentina, and across majestic national theatres throughout South America, Hamlet arrived in Africa in January.

The first African performance was at Algeria’s National Theatre. Hamlet Globe to Globe has since performed at the Bibliotheca Alexandrina in Egypt, the beautiful St Louis Cathedral in Carthage, Tunisia, at Ethiopia’s National Theatre in Addis Ababa, as a free outdoor performance in Sudan - making its way through East Africa, from Somaliland to Rwanda, Burundi, Kenya and Uganda.

Nigeria is the 79th country the Globe will perform in.

The cast and crew have travelled by boat, sleeper trains, jeeps, tall ships, buses and aeroplanes, across seven continents to perform over two dozen parts on a stripped- down booth stage. The company of twelve actors and four stage managers has used a completely portable set to stage a Hamlet that celebrates all the exuberance and invention of Shakespeare’s language in a brisk two hours and 40 minutes.