The Hamlet Voyage

Coming Summer 2022 to the Bristol Harbour Festival

The Hamlet Voyage is a new play about the first written record of a performance of Hamlet, acted by sailors in 1607 off the coast of Sierra Leone for local West African dignitaries, on the first English voyage to reach India.

The play will examine this cross-cultural encounter that took place before England became deeply involved in the Atlantic slave trade, before the age of British imperialism, and before Shakespeare became a global name. Together with the audience, we will imagine how history might have turned out differently and where we go from here.

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