Barbican Theatre's Benedict Cumberbatch-Led HAMLET to Screen via National Theatre Live This Fall

The Daily Mail writes that the Barbican Theatre's summer 2015 production of HAMLET, starring Benedict Cumberbatch in the title role, will officially be broadcast via National Theatre Live on October 15 in the UK, Europe and the US, as well as later that same month in Japan (with subtitles), plus Brazil. Tickets go on sale March 16.

Cumberbatch told the Mail: "It's just a great way of making the play accessible."

Producer Sonia Friedman said she hopes the broadcast will be "an electrifying evening" for those watching the show "in real time".

William Shakespeare's HAMLET will begin performances at the Barbican Theatre on 5 August 2015, with opening night on 25 August at 7pm. The twelve-week limited run will conclude on 31 October 2015. Lyndsey Turner directs. Set design is by Es Devlin. HAMLET will be produced by Sonia Friedman Productions.

In HAMLET, as a country arms itself for war, a family tears itself apart. Forced to revenge his father's death but paralysed by the task ahead, Hamlet rages against the impossibility of his predicament, threatening both his sanity and the security of the state.

Benedict Cumberbatch is an international multi-award winning theatre, television and film actor. His recent stage credits, both for the National Theatre, are After the Dance and alternating both the creature and Dr Frankenstein, in Danny Boyle's production of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein for which he won the Olivier, Evening Standard and Critics' Circle Best Actor awards. Also, a critically-acclaimed television actor, he is currently best known for playing the title role in the BBC's Sherlock. His film work includes Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Star Trek into Darkness, 12 Years a Slave, The Fifth Estate, August: Osage County and the role of Smaug in The Hobbit trilogy, with the final instalment to be released later this year. In October Cumberbatch will be seen playing Alan Turning in The Imitation Game which opens The BFI London Film Festival.

Lyndsey Turner's directing credits include Fathers and Sons and Philadelphia, Here I Come! for the Donmar Warehouse, Machinal for the Roundabout Theatre, Chimerica at the Almeida and in the West End, Posh for the Royal Court and in the West End, There Is A War and Edgar and Annabel for the National Theatre, Aliceand The Way Of The World for Sheffield Theatres and Our Private Life, Contractions, A Miracle for the Royal Court.

For more about the production, visit www.hamlet-barbican.com.