Via the always fascinating Mirabilis, here’s a great essay from 1971 (imagine that!). It’s by Laura Bohannon, an antropologist who tries to tell the story of Hamlet to the elders of a remote African tribe:
I decided to skip the soliloquy. Even if Claudius was here thought quite right to marry his brother’s widow, there remained the poison motif, and I knew they would disapprove of fratricide. More hopefully I resumed, “that night Hamlet kept watch with the three who had seen his dead father. The dead chief again appeared, and although the others were afraid, Hamlet followed his dead father off to one side. When they were alone, Hamlet’s dead father spoke.”
“Omens can’t talk!” The old man was emphatic.
The conclusion is that, no, Shakespeare ain’t quite as universal as everybody thinks.
DarrenBarefoot.com 
Coincidental post. Last night, after seeing a preview of the movie “Yes”, which is a mdoern story told in verse, I had a conversation with a young man, just out of college, who thought the verse was crap.
And in fact, according to him, all verse plays are crap and should not be put on anymore. Shakespeare is dated and not interesting and not “real.”
The only style of acting worth seeing is the Method because it’s “real.” (And no, this guy wasn’t a theatre major.)
He was convinced that he was right and that people only watch Shakespeare anymore because no one has the guts to say the emperor is wearing no clothes.