William Shakespeare's Hamlet will be staged at the Vatican on Wednesday, marking the first time the playwright's work has been performed in the world's smallest country, according to Vatican Radio.

The production has toured the world for two years to mark the 450th anniversary of Shakespeare's birth, and is part of the London theatre's 'Globe to Globe' programme.

"[The Globe] approached the Holy See about the possibility of finding a venue, and the possibility of putting on Hamlet," said Bishop Paul Tighe, the adjunct secretary of the Pontifical council for culture.

"There was immediately a very warm response to the initiative."

The play will be staged in the Pallazzo della Cancelleria, which houses the Holy See's judicial offices.

Although much of his work is not overtly religious, Shakespeare "opens up extraordinary universal themes, and I think in opening up those themes, even for people who mightn't be explicitly religous, or mightn't even be open to religious ideas, they are inevitably obliged to confront larger questions about the meaning and purpose of life," Tighe said.

He added: "Shakespeare's work is recognised as something that raises the real questions about what does it mean to be human, about the potential of human beings to achieve greatness, at the same time the tragedy of when human life goes badly.

"I think I would say it's not so much what he gives to religious culture, as he asks the right questions and provokes and stimulates the right sort of questions, that then allow people to go that little bit deeper, which is where probably we can begin to talk about religion and views of transcendence."

Drawing attention to the context in which Shakespeare lived, Tighe said: "I think he was profoundly Christian, his world view was shaped by his Christian beliefs."