HAMLET with Benedict Cumberbatch to Offer 100 £10 Tickets to Each Performance

Sonia Friedman Productions, in partnership with Sky Arts, has allocated 100 £10 tickets, spread throughout the auditorium for every performance of Lyndsey Turner's production of Hamlet starring Benedict Cumberbatch in the title role at the Barbican Theatre from 5 August 2015.

60 of the Sky Arts £10 tickets will be sold in advance via the Barbican website in an on-line ticket ballot and 30 will be available each day as day-seats. The final 10 will be sold via a select number of charities who work with under-privileged young people. In total, there will be over 8,500 £10 seats made available for this production during the run.

From 10am on Friday 29 May and until 10am on Tuesday 16 June 2015, the general public will have the opportunity to enter the lottery ticket ballot by visiting http://hamlet.barbican.org.uk to apply for up to 2 tickets. On Friday 19 June 2015 the successful applicants will be notified by email with further information about how to purchase their winning tickets from Monday 22 June onwards.

In addition, from time to time, small numbers of tickets in other price bands will be released for advance sale online, please visit http://hamlet-barbican.com/ for up-to-date information.

Phil Edgar-Jones, Director of Sky Arts, said: "We are delighted to be supporting this fantastic scheme with Sonia Friedman Productions. At Sky Arts we firmly believe that the Arts should be accessible to everyone - and it is wonderful that this hotly anticipated production of Hamlet will be open for so many more people to share."

The Hamlet cast also includes Leo Bill as Horatio, Sian Brooke as Ophelia, Anastasia Hille as Gertrude, Ciarán Hinds as Claudius, Kobna Holdbrook-Smith as Laertes and Jim Norton as Polonius. Full casting to be announced soon.

As a country arms itself for war, a family tears itself apart. Forced to avenge 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.

Hamlet is produced by Sonia Friedman Productions and will be presented by the Barbican for an exclusive 12-week run, concluding 31 October 2015. Set Designs are by Es Devlin with costume designs by Katrina Lindsay, video by Luke Halls, lighting by Jane Cox, music by Jon Hopkins, sound by Christopher Shutt and movement by Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui.

In addition to regular performances, there have been four education matinees scheduled exclusively for school and university groups (aged 14+ and in full-time education only) on 10 and 30 September and 7 and 21 October 2015 with 100 tickets priced at £10, 300 tickets priced at £25 available for each performance, and the remainder at £35.

As previously announced, Hamlet will be broadcast to cinemas around the world on Thursday 15 October 2015 as part of National Theatre Live - the National Theatre's ground-breaking project which broadcasts plays live from the stage to over 550 cinemas in the UK and over 44 countries internationally. Details of all screenings, including encore performances, can be found at ntlive.com

Sky Arts is the UK's only dedicated television channel for the arts and the definitive destination for music, arts and culture. Showing a wide range of programmes across a number of genres, it has an ambitious line-up of original and creative programming featuring some of the UK's biggest talent. This is supported by a comprehensive on demand service with over 1,000 hours of dedicated arts and music programmes launching from June.

Sky Arts is passionate about making the arts entertaining and accessible and through its Sky Academy Arts Scholarships uses the power of TV and creativity to help young people unlock their potential. The scheme offers financial and mentoring support to five emerging young artists every year and has already helped set over 20 talented young artists on the path to successful careers.