Reading the intro to the Arden 3 ed of Hamlet yesterday (as I get ready to teach next week), I was reminded that the first performance of the play for which we have clear evidence was on board a ship off the coast of Africa in 1607. We assume it had been played in London before that — it had already been printed, in two different versions, in 1603 and 1604 — but we don’t have records of those performances. What we have is a note in Captain William Keeling’s journal, on board the Red Dragon, dated 1607 September 5th, “we gave the tragedie of Hamlet.” The ships were anchored off what is now Sierra Leone for six weeks, trying to re-assemble a fleet. They also played (some version of) Richard II during the same month.
A strangely resonant beginning for the most famous play in the language…