【2012-6-20】Sherlock actor Benedict Cumberbatch plans to play Hamlet

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/celebritynews/9342061/Sherlock-actor-Benedict-Cumberbatch-plans-to-play-Hamlet.html


Sherlock actor Benedict Cumberbatch plans to play Hamlet
Benedict Cumberbatch, the star of Sherlock, says he hopes to play Hamlet in the West End within the next two years.

By Tim Walker
7:28AM BST 20 Jun 2012

At the grand old age of 35, Benedict Cumberbatch reckons it is time he played Hamlet. “I hope to return to the theatre soon, hopefully as Hamlet, as it’s a role I’ve been interested in for a long time,” the Sherlock actor tells Mandrake.

“I don’t know if there is such a thing as a right age to play the part, but 36 or 37 seems appropriate to me, so I need to do it before long.”

Last year, Michael Sheen got away with playing the Prince of Denmark at 42. David Warner, who played the part when he was 24 at Stratford, says that the scholars always reckon Hamlet to be 33 at the end of the play.

Still, Sir Michael Redgrave was 50 when he played the part and the “divine” Sarah Bernhardt managed to do it at 55 — and on one leg, to boot.

http://www.radiotimes.com/news/2012-06-20/sherlock%27s-benedict-cumberbatch---i-want-to-play-hamlet-soon


Sherlock's Benedict Cumberbatch - I want to play Hamlet soon
The 35-year-old actor says he's approaching the age when it's time to follow in the footsteps of David Tennant and play the Dane

Paul Jones
8:38 AM, 20 June 2012


Shakespeare's tragic hero Hamlet is a part any serious actor aspires to play at some point during his career, and it seems Benedict Cumberbatch is no different.

“I hope to return to the theatre soon, hopefully as Hamlet, as it’s a role I’ve been interested in for a long time,” said the Sherlock star.

Now 35, Cumberbatch suggested he was approaching a good age to take on the Dane.

“I don’t know if there is such a thing as a right age to play the part, but 36 or 37 seems appropriate to me, so I need to do it before long,” he told The Telegraph.

Scholars reckon the character of Hamlet to have been around 33 during Shakespeare's play, but Cumberbatch's contemporary David Tennant played the part of the Danish prince to rave reviews aged 37.

But there's no need for Sherlock fans to panic - a return to the theatre does not necessarily mean turning your back on television. Tennant took on the role at the Royal Shakespeare Company in 2008, and continued to work on Doctor Who for another two years, while Cumberbatch said recently that he'd like to play Sherlock for many years to come.