The ‘Cumberbatch’ Hamlet (1):‘The Very Age and Body of the Time His Form and Pressure’

This essay reads Lyndsey Turner’s 2015 Hamlet at the Barbican Theatre in London against the production’s priorities, namely, being star, new audience and box-office driven. It explores the negotiation of the script, space and politics at the heart of this production. Giving its due when discussing the cinematic employment of cuts, editing, lighting and freeze frames, it acknowledges that some of the special effects were lost to the theatre spectator, per force cast in a secondary role in a production that prioritised live-streaming across the world.