This blog post was published under the 2010 to 2015 Conservative and Liberal Democrat coalition government

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Sarah Dickson

Ambassador to Guatemala (June 2012 - June 2015)

Part of UK in Guatemala

28th August 2014

To be or not to be

Watching Hamlet in the shadow of the ruins of Copan in Honduras or on the top of a hill above Antigua Guatemala is a wonderful, if extremely unusual, experience. It also felt good to be having a Shakespeare tour in the 450th anniversary of his birth.

The local reactions to the Globe Theatre’s global 2 year tour to 205 countries have been overwhelmingly positive and have reminded me of the importance of linking cultures. There is something universal about the themes of Shakespeare’s plays and interesting to hear how people interpret the relevance of them to their context.

So my analysis of this is not as deep as Hamlet’s own refrain of “to be or not be”, but the Embassy is keen to share cultural moments such as this and hope there will be many more of them. We are open to ideas – anyone up for a British music week?

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