Let's say you had an idea, an idea that could never, ever really work.

And one night, you're out with some friends.

Late in the evening, you pose this idea of yours.

Out loud.

Your friends all look at you.

They think about it, and they all go,

That's brilliant, let's do it.

Imagine that happened to you. What would you do next?

From the Folger Shakespeare Library, this is Shakespeare Unlimited. I'm Michael Whitmore, the Folger's director.

In this case, the idea belonged to Dominic Dromgoole, who at the time was artistic director at Shakespeare's Globe in London.

The idea was this.

As a celebration of the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare's death,

the globe would create a production of Hamlet and then stage it in every single country in the world.

And they more or less pulled it off. Two years later, on the anniversary, they had traveled 193,000 miles

and performed in 197 countries. A truly astounding effort that Dominic has chronicled in a new

book called Hamlet Globe to Globe. We invited him in to talk about this remarkable year, along with

Tom Bird, the Globe's executive producer who managed the tour from London and also traveled to 19 of the countries that Hamlet visited.

Dominic and Tom are interviewed by Barbara Bogave.

Before we get to this idea of taking Shakespeare to every country in the world, let's start with something just very simple.

Why Hamlet? Why that play? Dominic.

It's iconic and people know it and there are sort of plastic images within it like Hamlet holding up the skull, which translate anywhere in the world.

It's beautiful and it's a joy to do and it's a pride to do.

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