‘Hamlet’ West End stage play: Star Benedict Cumberbatch asks fans to stop

YouTube user kari100 took up the call from Cumberbatch who asked that patrons outside the London theater where he is performing “Hamlet” might “ripple it out there”.

She wrote: “Benedict Cumberbatch has all the energy Hamlet requires, sweating around the Barbican stage like an oleaginous electric eel, but there’s little subtlety in this performance“.

The Director of the Gate Theatre in Dublin, Michael Colgan, has lent his support to Benedict Cumberbatch after he was forced to plead with theatregoers not to film his performance of Hamlet on their phones.

Commenting specifically about the need for re-starting the opening scene, Cumberbatch said, “It’s not the easiest place to begin a play full stop, but for the second time even harder”.

Seems many in the audience are recording his performance, especially the “to be or not to be” speech, and he finds this “mortifying”.

Often, these videos are traded on the Internet for other bootlegs through social media sites such as Tumblr, turning the videos into a form of currency. I can’t give you what I want to give you which is a live performance that you’ll remember, hopefully, in your minds and brains whether it’s good, bad or indifferent, rather than on your phones. The immensely popular “Sherlock” star said that he did not want that to happen again. I’d really appreciate it if you could tweet, blog, hashtag the s– out of this one for me. “That’s a disgusting way to police what’s a wonderful thing”.

“By and large (the Cumberbabes) are very intelligent, and engaging and supportive bunch of people, so it’s been fun to go on the road with them”, Cumberbatch said in a recent interview with CNN’s Talk Asia.

Interest in Cumberbatch’s Hamlet may be particularly high as the production, which runs until October 31, has completely sold out.