TURN IT OFF
Benedict Cumberbatch pleads with fans
BENEDICT CUMBERBATCH has pleaded with fans to stop videoing his performances as Hamlet, saying that the red lights from camera phones in the auditorium left him feeling mortified.
The actor, performing at the Barbican in London, said that audience members who did not listen to him would be detected and evicted by theatre staff who were bringing in technology to catch them.
Meeting cheering admirers outside the stage door on Saturday night, Cumberbatch called for help in stopping the breach of theatre etiquette.
He looked weary after what he described as ‘‘a hell of a week’’ and said he did not mind being videoed outside the theatre.
‘‘Photographs, whatever, outside – fine,’’ he said. But he went on: ‘‘I can see cameras, I can see red lights, in the auditorium.
‘‘And it may not be any of you here that did that, but it’s blindingly obvious – like that one there, that little red light. It’s very obvious.’’
Cumberbatch, whose celebrity helped tickets for the production to sell out within hours, said that he spotted the illicit camera use the moment he walked on stage on Saturday, when technical issues forced the play to stop and restart from the beginning.
‘‘When we started again, I could see a red light in about the third row. It’s mortifying.
‘‘And there’s nothing less supportive or enjoyable as an actor being on stage experiencing that. I can’t give you what I want to give you, which is a live performance that you will remember, hopefully, in your minds and brains, whether it’s good, bad or indifferent, rather than on your phones.’’
He said that he wanted to ‘‘try to enlist’’ people to spread the message on his behalf because he did not use social media.
‘‘I’d really appreciate it if you’d tweet, blog, hashtag the s... out of this.’’
Cumberbatch, who began his career in Shakespearean roles before becoming a star in Sherlock on television and in films such as The Imitation Game, said the theatre was preparing to intervene.
‘‘It will get strict from now on. They’ve got devices that are coming in on Monday that will have people detected and evicted. I don’t want that to happen. That’s a horrible way to police what’s a wonderful thing . . .
‘‘This is me asking you to just ripple it out there in the brilliant, beautiful way that you do with your funny electronic things while I sit there with my pipe and book.’’
The Barbican, which is showing preview performances of Hamlet before its official opening on August 25, did not respond when asked what equipment it would be using.
Cinemas began issuing staff with night-vision goggles 10 years ago to try to prevent pirate recordings at premieres.
Intrusive camera phone use in theatres has increased in recent years as newcomers, often attracted by actors seen in cinemas or on television, want to share their experience on social media.
James McAvoy interrupted a performance of Macbeth in 2013 to tell a woman to stop videoing him.
Billie Piper said that she had noticed ‘‘a lot of phone action’’ when she was in The Effect at the National Theatre the same year. ‘‘You can feel the flashes,’’ she said. ‘‘It does bother me because it feels like a stolen moment.’’
Luke Treadaway, who won an Olivier Award for his performance in The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, said he had been distracted by flashes.
‘‘There’s a constant desire to show that you’re having fun by posting something on Twitter or Facebook,’’ he said.