To buy or not to buy: Hamlet for a tenner
THERE’S a method to buying the £10 tickets for the production of Hamlet starring Benedict Cumberbatch.
The actor told me that he, along with producer Sonia Friedman, was adamant that there should be ‘plenty of affordable seats’ for the play, which is directed by Lyndsey Turner.
So there are 100 seats, priced at a tenner, for every day of the play’s 12-week run at the Barbican. Here’s how it works. Of the 100 £10 tickets for every performance, 60 will be sold in advance, through the Barbican website, via an on-line ballot.
A further 30 will be sold on the day of performance. First come, first served, for those who queue at the theatre.
The final ten will go to an assortment of charities that work with underprivileged young people and they can sell them.
From 10am today until June 16, you can enter the ticket ballot via hamlet.
barbican.org
On June 19, successful applicants will be notified by email about where and when to get their tickets.
Just to keep you all really on your toes, there’s a possibility that a small number of additional seats will be released. So, keep checking in with the
Barbican at this address:
hamlet-barbican.com
On top of that, there are all manner of deals for schools and universities to get students into four performances on September 10 and 30, and October 7 and 21.
Pupils must be over 14 and in full-time education to be eligible to attend the education-only matinees.
Ms Friedman told me it’s ‘important that our industry, when we can, finds ways to make theatre accessible to as wide an audience as possible’.
The one aspect that concerns me is the thought that people who can well afford to pay top prices will latch on to the cheaper tickets, which are really meant for those who don’t have the cash to pay big bucks for seats.
Performances for Hamlet begin on August 5 and it runs through until October 31. NT Live will broadcast it in cinemas on October 15.
As reported here earlier, the rest of the cast will include Ciaran Hinds, Anastasia Hille, Sian Brooke, Leo Bill, Kobna Holdbrook- Smith and Jim Norton.