Benedict Cumberbatch is to star in the title role of a production of Hamlet at the Barbican Theatre in London next year, the venue has confirmed today.
Directed by Lyndsey Turner, the show will run for 12 weeks at the venue during the summer in 2015 and is being produced by Sonia Friedman Productions. Further details have yet to be announced.
Also announced as part of the Barbican’s autumn/winter programme is a season of works adapted from plays by Henrik Ibsen.
The International Ibsen Season will feature three productions. The first, An Enemy of the People, will be directed by Thomas Ostermeier for Schaubühne Berlin theatre company and will run from September 24 to 28.
This is followed by Peer Gynt, which is adapted and directed by Peter Brook’s daughter Irina Brook and includes new songs by Iggy Pop and poems by Sam Shepard. It runs from October 8 to 11 and is produced by Theatre National de Nice, of which Irina Brook is the new artistic director.
Lastly, The Wild Duck – directed and adapted by Australian director Simon Stone for Belvoir Sydney theatre company – will run from October 23 to November 1.
The London premiere of A Midsummer Night’s Dream (As You Like It) directed by Russian director Dmitry Krymov and performed by Dmitry Krymov Lab will run from November 12 to 15. The show is presented by the Barbican in association with the Royal Shakespeare Company, which originally commissioned the piece as part of the World Shakespeare Festival in 2012.
Meanwhile, a re-worked version of Howie the Rookie by Mark O’Rowe will run from November 19 to 29, starring Tom Vaughan-Lawlor, and Forced Entertainment will present its first show for children, The Possible Impossible House, from December 17 to 28.
Hip hop dance company Boy Blue Entertainment returns to the venue with a revival of its show The Five and the Prophecy of Prana, and a re-working of Verdi’s opera Macbeth by South African director Brett Bailey will also form part of the season.