No, Benedict Cumberbatch is not coming. Or Jude Law, Kenneth Branagh, David Tennant or any of the A-list actors who've lined up to play what is the Holy Grail of acting roles.
But The Globe Theatre's production of Hamlet will be special in other ways. Part of a truly global tour, Shakespeare's longest play gets an abridged adaptation as part of an ambitious plan to bring the play to 205 countries.
The cast includes Hong Kong-born actress Jennifer Leong and Brit Tom Lawrence. The cast of twelve have set themselves a challenge of playing different roles interchangeably. They are told two weeks in advance which role they will play. "The night before you’ll be playing someone’s daughter and the next night he would be your king, so it’s very different from any other job. Leong told Gulf News. "It’s great because it means you get to see and hear those lines and iconic scenes from different points of view. It’s great as a learning opportunity.”
“You are endlessly learning — which is always the case with Shakespeare — but I find with this one you are always getting new insights,” adds Lawrence. “We very rarely repeat the same combination of cast, it’s happened once or twice only. There are so many combinations possible.”
"I think having a lunatic idea is a very good thing, it's a great way to keep everybody focused and dazzled and delighted by the ambition and energy of the company," the artistic director, Dominic Dromgoole told The Guardian. Midway through the two-year tour, stops include the Rift Valley in Kenya – "where human life began on Earth", Dromgoole said – and Elsinore in Denmark, the original setting of the tragedy.See www.ductac.org for more information and tickets.
