Benedict Cumberbatch is going to tackle one of the best roles ever created in the English language. The Sherlock star will play Hamlet on the London stage next year.
Sonia Friedman Productions will be producing the William Shakespeare tragedy at the Barbican Theatre in London for three months, starting in August 2015, reports BBC News. Lyndsey Turner, who was picked to direct Cumberbatch, said she is “thrilled” by the opportunity to direct “one of the most gifted and exciting actors of his generation.”
Cumberbatch, 37, was last on the stage in 2011, when he starred in Danny Boyle’s Frankenstein for the National Theatre, notes The Independent. That earned him and co-star Jonny Lee Miller an Olivier Award.
Cumberbatch had a stellar 2013, appearing in the Best Picture Oscar winner 12 Years A Slave, the summer blockbuster Star Trek Into Darkness and the Wikileaks movie The Fifth Estate. Earlier this year, he starred on the third season of Sherlock and will later be seen in The Imitation Game.
image courtesy of ABC/Rick Rowell