Cumberfans on Hamlet: ‘I can’t imagine what it will be like to see him’
Hannah Ellis-Petersen for The Guardian, 4 August 2015
Teri Peterson, 39, a receptionist, has lived in rural Wisconsin her whole life. With the nearest theatres in Chicago or Milawaukee over a two hours drive away, Shakespeare performances are not always easy to access. But in October, she has tickets to Hamlet – almost 4,000 miles away from home.
As she says, this is no ordinary Shakespeare production. This will be Benedict Cumberbatch’s Hamlet at the Barbican, a show that over the past year has become one of the most talked-about theatre productions across the world.
When tickets first went on sale in August last year, it became the fastest selling show in London theatre history, with tens of thousands attempting to buy tickets and all 100,000 selling out in minutes. While the tickets retailed at around £65, they are now reselling online for upwards of £1,500. Each day the Barbican will release another 30 tickets priced at £10 for the production, and the actor’s peculiarly obsessive fans are expected to camp out at the Barbican nightly in a bid to get their hands on one. The first night is on Wednesday.
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Sherlock vs Shakespeare in Cumberbatch’s 18 hour Hamlet queue
By Hannah Furness for the Telegraph, 5 August 2015
He has been the big draw behind the London theatre event of the year, but it appears Benedict Cumberbatch’s star turn in Hamlet has not been universally popular with diehard fans of Shakespeare.
In fact, he has become something of a thorn in the side of dedicated theatre-goers, who claim the tickets they would usually snap up have instead been won by fans of Sherlock eager to see their idol on stage.
Dozens of Londoners, tourists and bargain-hunters are queuing at the Barbican theatre for what may be their last chance to secure £10 seats.
But while many believed the line would be packed with Cumberbatch fans camping out to see him, the majority were in fact long-term theatre lovers who had missed out on their usual tickets.
Cumberbatch fans wait 17 hours for chance of opening-night tickets
Hannah Ellis-Petersen for The Guardian, 5 August 2015
They came slowly at first, some alone, others arriving in pairs, with blankets, sleeping bags and boxes of cereal under their arms. It was going to be a long night but all were united by a single goal – that, by 10.30 on Wednesday morning, a ticket to see Benedict Cumberbatch in the opening night of Hamlet would be theirs.
Such was the desperation to get hold of one of only 30 £10 tickets that theBarbican in London will release each night for Cumberbatch’s portrayal of the Dane that some queuers waited out in the cold for 17 hours on Tuesday night. Indeed, all those who arrived in line after 6.01 on Wednesday morning found themselves among the ranks of the disappointed.
Standing proudly at the front of the queue were Chiara Russo, 19, and Giorgia Alonghi, 18, both from Rome but working in London over the summer. The pair arrived at 3pm on Tuesday but soon regretted their decision not to bring blankets as night fell and they huddled up against the temporary barricades.
We shouldn’t be such snobs about people seeing Hamlet for Benedict Cumberbatch
Rosie Millard for the Independent, 6 August 2015
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