adminTo Be or Not To Be…… Taken in By the Cumbermania…
The sainted Benedict aside, there are some rather decent theatreland options this month. Our green room spy investigates
Preview by Geoffrey Ledwell Photography by Johan Persson
You may not have been aware, due to the lack of press attention, but Sir Benedict of Cumberbatch is playing Hamlet on the boards of the Barbican until the 31st of October. Of course, unless you want to shell out £200 on eBay, you won’t be able to go and see him in the flesh, because tickets sold out last year. However, disappointed Bardophiles and Cumberfans sans tickets needn’t despair as it has transpired that their handsome prince will now be beamed into cinemas across the nation for three nights only from October 15th, via the incredible technology of National Theatre Live. Snap up tickets now before it’s too late.
For those utterly non-plussed by the whole affair there’s plenty going on elsewhere to divert your attention. Over at The Royal Court, for instance, Martin McDonagh is debuting his first play in a decade after focusing on a film career which included In Bruges and Seven Psychopaths but never reached the brilliant heights of his work on stage, which included the darkly violent Leenane Trilogy and the lurid-but-inspired dystopian thriller, The Pillowman, first seen all the way back in 2003. His newest, Hangmen, directed by Matthew Dunster, finds Britain’s ‘second-best hangman’ (after Pierrepoint) at a loose end in a pub in Oldham after the abolition of capital punishment - but the devil makes work for idle thumbs no doubt. From September 10th.
At the National Theatre, the ever-reliable Artistic Director of Headlong, Jeremy Herrin (Wolf Hall, This House), directs People, Places and Things. Written by Duncan Macmillan, whose last major work for the theatre was the incredibly successful reimagining of 1984, which was only recently back in the West End, and whose back catalogue contains the wonderful Every Brilliant Thing, the play is billed as an exploration of addiction and rehabilitation. Open now and running until November 4th.
Moving to the Old Vic you can buy tickets for Matthew Warchus’s inaugural season, which includes a whole myriad of treats, including two classic plays from two Nobel Prize winners: The Caretaker, by Harold Pinter and The Hairy Ape by Eugene O’Neill. Alongside these are a new adaptation of Ibsen’s The Master Builder by David Hare, and Future Conditional, a brand new work from the critically acclaimed writer Tamsin Oglesby (The Mouse and His Child, Really Old, Like Fortyfive).
Finally, if you’re finding the encroaching rain too much, and would rather stay in than go out, then I suggest downloading the new Paines Plough Come To Where I’m From application for iPhone. Come To Where I’m From is an ongoing project in which writers are asked to write a play to perform themselves, in response to their own hometown; this brilliant app brings all the plays together, into one place, for instant streaming. Some great new writing talents are among the authors here, including Mike Bartlett, Lee Mattinson, Leo Butler and James Graham and the whole thing is free to download and listen, so what are you waiting for? 