Leo Bill, Sian Brooke, Jim Norton & More to Join Benedict Cumberbatch in West End HAMLET

Joining Benedict Cumberbatch, who plays the title role in Lyndsey Turner's production ofWilliam Shakespeare's Hamlet, are Leo Bill as Horatio, Sian Brooke as Ophelia,Anastasia Hille as Gertrude, Ciarán Hinds as Claudius, Kobna Holdbrook-Smith asLaertes and Jim Norton as Polonius.

Performances at the Barbican Theatre begin on 5 August 2015, with opening night on 25 August at 7pm. Hamlet will be presented by the Barbican and produced by Sonia Friedman Productions for an exclusive 12-week run, concluding 31 October 2015. Set Designs are byEs Devlin with costume designs by Katrina Lindsay, video by Luke Halls, lighting by Jane Cox, music by Jon Hopkins, sound by Chris 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. These performances will go on sale on 11 May 2015 via the Barbican, with 300 tickets priced at £25 available for each performance, and the remainder at £35.

At each performance there will also be 100 regular seats at £10 each, positioned throughout the auditorium. These seats will be released for sale at a later date.

As previously announced, Hamlet will be broadcast to cinemas around the world onThursday 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 new encore performances, can be found at ntlive.com

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.

Benedict Cumberbatch is an international multi-award winning theatre, television and film actor. His more 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 and will be seen next year as Richard III in The Hollow Crown: The Wars of the Roses. 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. Cumberbatch was nominated for a BAFTA, Golden Globe and Academy Award for his role playing Alan Turing in The Imitation Game which opened The 2014 BFI London Film Festival.

Leo Bill (Horatio) will be seen later this month in Light Shining in Buckinghamshire for the National Theatre, which is also directed by Lyndsey Turner. His previous theatre credits includeThe Reporter, The Hothouse and Pains of Youth for the National Theatre, Posh for the Royal Court and in the West End,The Glass Menagerie for the Young Vic, School for Scandal for the Barbican, The Way of the World for the Sheffield Crucible and The Silence of the Sea for the Donmar Warehouse. Bill's television work includes Canterbury Tales, Messiah III, A Very Social Secretary, Bash, Jekyll, Sense and Sensibility, Lead Balloon and Ashes To Ashes. Amongst his film credits are Gosford Park, 28 Days Later, Vera Drake, The Fall, Becoming Jane, Alice in Wonderland and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.

Sian Brooke's (Ophelia) previous theatre credits include Tartuffe for the Birmingham Rep, Reasons to be Pretty and My City for the Almeida Theatre, Ecstasy and In The Club for the Hampstead Theatre, Wanderlust and Dying City for the Royal Court, The Wizard of Oz at the Royal Festival Hall, How to Disappear and Never be Found for the Sheffield Crucible, King Learand Romeo and Juliet for the Royal Shakespeare Company and Dido, Queen of Carthage for the National Theatre. Amongst Brooke's television credits are Cut, Lewis, Man Down, Garrow's Law, Silk, Cape Wrath, New Tricks, Vexed, Doc Martin, The Commander, Foyle's War,The Fixer, Hotel Babylon and Dinotopia.

Anastasia Hille's (Gertrude) previous stage credits include The Effect, Dido, Queen of Carthage, Waves, Women of Troy, Dream Play, The Oresteia, Richard III for the National Theatre, Masterbuilder and The Cenci for the Almeida, Forty Winks and Ashes to Ashes for the Royal Court, As You Like It and Two Gentlemen of Verona for Shakespeare's Globe, Duchess of Malfi, Measure for Measure and Macbeth for Cheek by Jowl, The Jewish Wife and The Maidsfor the Young Vic, Uncle Vanya and The Winter's Tale for the RSC, The Dark and Morphic Resonance for the Donmar Warehouse, Three Tall Women at the Wyndham's Theatre and Therese Raquin for the Leicester Haymarket. Her television credits include The Missing, Prey, The Tunnel, The Fear, Getting On, Cutting It and Red Dwarf. Hille's film credits include Trespass Against Us, Snow White and The Huntsman, The Awakening, Good and New Year's Day.

Ciarán Hinds' (Claudius) theatre credits include The Night Alive and Assassins for the Donmar Warehouse, The Birds and Antigone for the Gate Theatre, Closer and Machinal for the National Theatre, Simpatico for the Royal Court, Our Few and Evil Days for the Abbey Theatre,Troilus and Cressida, Richard III and Edward II for the Royal Shakespeare Company and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof on Broadway. Amongst Hinds' television work is Game of Thrones, Above Suspicion, Jane Eyre, Persuasion and Political Animals. His extensive film credits include The Road to Perdition, Munich, Excalibur, There Will Be Blood, In Bruges, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, The Eclipse, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy and The Sea.

Kobna Holdbrook-Smith (Laertes) has previously been seen on stage in Edward II, Antigone and Death and the King's Horseman for the National Theatre, The Low Road for the Royal Court, Feast, Joe Turner's Come and Gone and The Changeling for the Young Vic, Love's Labour's Lost for Shakespeare's Globe, Detaining Justice, Sieze the Day and Fabulation for the Tricycle Theatre. His television credits include Capital, Crackanory, Worricker Trilogy, The Last Panthers and Midsomer Murders. Holdbrook-Smith's film work includes The Double and Roadkill.

Jim Norton (Polonius) won both an Olivier and Tony Award for his performance as Richard Harkin in The Seafarer. His most recent appearance on Broadway was as Candy in Of Mice and Men. His other Broadway credits include The Mystery of Edwin Drood, Finian's Rainbow and The Weir. For the Atlantic Theatre his credits include Juno and the Paycock,Dublin Carol, Port Authority and the Donmar Warehouse production of The Night Alive. Norton worked extensively at the National Theatre between 1975 and 1985. At the Royal Court he appeared in The Contractor and The Changing Room. On film his credits include Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, Water For Elephants, Straw Dogs, Hidden Agenda, Memoirs of an Invisible Man, Driving Lessons, The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, Oyster Farmer, The Eclipse, and most recently Father Sheridan in Jimmy's Hall for Ken Loach. His television credits include Elementary, Frasier, Poirot, Star Trek: the Next Generation, Stan and BBC's River.

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, Alice and The Way Of The World for Sheffield Theatres and Our Private Life, Contractions, A Miracle for the Royal Court. Turner was recently appointed as an Associate Director for the National Theatre where she will direct Light Shining in Buckinghamshire in April.

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