Actors Dominic Rowan and Kate Duchene perform as Henry VIII and Queen Katherine in Shakepeare's Henry VIII at the Globe theatre in London July 6, 2010.LUKE MACGREGOR/Reuters
Brooding Danish rock star Hamlet is going on a world tour – and has picked a surprise location for his one stop in Canada: The St. Lawrence Shakespeare Festival in Prescott, Ont. Last year, the Globe Theatre in London revealed it would perform a stripped-down, eight-actor version of William Shakespeare's most famous tragedy in "all 205 nations on Earth" starting on the playwright's 450th birthday, April 23, 2014. Landing the exclusive Canadian engagement is a significant coup for the St. Lawrence Shakespeare Festival, a summer theatre only 12 years old and based in an outdoor amphitheatre on the banks of the St. Lawrence River. "For a small festival like this in a small town, the prestige of having an event like this here is huge," said artistic director Ian Farthing. The visiting production is co-directed by Bill Buckhurst and the Globe's artistic director Dominic Dromgoole – but the actor playing the melancholy Dane around the world has yet to be announced.
Follow me on Twitter: @nestruck
J. Kelly Nestruck