Shakespeare’s Globe is to put on a performance of Hamlet at The Jungle camp in Calais.
The touring production of the Bard’s timeless tragedy will play to an audience of displaced men and women, the London-based theatre company said.
The show on Wednesday is part of the Globe to Globe world tour, which has also seen performances at refugee camps in Jordan, Djibouti and Cameroon.
Globe actors perform Shakespeare’s Hamlet during a photo call (Lefteris Pitarakis/AP)
It is being staged with the Good Chance theatre company, which is based at the camp.
Dominic Dromgoole, the Globe’s artistic director, said: “This performance will be yet another wonderful example of this groundbreaking tour’s ability to reach displaced people across the world.
“It’s a privilege that our Hamlet company have been able to perform in the Calais Jungle and our thanks go to Good Chance for enabling this.”
A scene from Hamlet during a photo call (Lefteris Pitarakis/AP)
Some 6,000 people are living in unsanitary and dangerous conditions in the camp on France’s north coast as European nations struggle to deal with the migrant crisis.
Joe Murphy and Joe Robertson, the artistic directors of Good Chance, said: “As a production which has travelled to audiences all over the world, it is fitting that it visits the camp here in Calais, where the fault lines of over 20 different nations meet.”
The Jungle show will be followed by a performance for Libyan migrants in Malta on Monday.
Shakespeare’s Hamlet remains one of his most popular plays, with movie adaptations starring the likes of Laurence Olivier, Sir Kenneth Branagh and Mel Gibson in the title role.
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