Game Of Thrones star Ciarán Hinds will return to the stage this summer to appear in the hugely anticipated Benedict Cumberbatch-led Hamlet at the Barbican Theatre.
Hinds follows critically acclaimed stage appearances in productions including The Night Alive and Assassins at the Donmar Warehouse, and National Theatre productions of Closer and Machinal to play the infamous Claudius in rising star director Lyndsey Turner’s take on Shakespeare’s tale of a prince forced to avenge his father’s untimely death.
While audiences may know Hinds best for his many high profile screen roles in films including Munich, There Will Be Blood, In Bruges and Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows, the actor is also an experience Shakespearean performer, having appeared in Troilus And Cressida, Richard III and Edward II for the Royal Shakespeare Company.
The screen duo will be joined in Turner’s production by a quintet of regular stage performers also announced today.
Leo Bill, who is soon be seen in the National Theatre’s Light Shining In Buckinghamshire, will follow appearances in high profile productions including the Royal Court Theatre’s Posh and Trafalgar Transformed’s The Hothouse to play Horatio,
Taking on the iconic role of Ophelia is Sian Brookes, who follows stage credits including Reasons To Be Pretty and My City at the Almeida Theatre to return to the Bard’s work following RSC appearances in King Lear and Romeo And Juliet.
National Theatre regulars Anastasia Hille (The Effect, Dido, Queen Of Carthage, Richard III) and Kobna Holdbrook-Smith (Edward II, Antigone, Death And The King’s Horseman) will play Gertrude and Laertes respectively, while fellow NT performer and Broadway star Jim Norton will play Polonius. The role marks Norton’s return to the London stage following 2011’s The Veil and his Olivier Award-winning role in The Seafarer, both at the NT.
While demand for tickets to see Cumberbatch in the defining role has been immense, the Barbican Theatre has devised a number of ways theatregoers can witness the theatrical event.
Four matinees will go on sale exclusively for school and university groups, and 100 £10 seats for every performance will be released at a yet to be announced date. Finally, theatre fans all over the world will be able to watch the production when it’s screened around the globe on 15 October as part of NT Live.
Full information about the show can be found at www.hamlet-barbican.com