BBC Sherlock Fan Forum - Serving Sherlockians since February 2012 » Benedict to play Hamlet on stage

This Is The Phantom Lady · July 30, 2015 10:44 am

A thing that pisses me off (while I don't claim to know Benedict) I think he would hate this so much.

gently69 · July 30, 2015 10:46 am

Just had a look on the Barbican site again. Seems that they have no problems to sell them.

SolarSystem · July 30, 2015 10:48 am

I actually can understand very well that people who might not have been lucky to get tickets up until now are taking this chance now. Even for that amount of money.

This Is The Phantom Lady · July 30, 2015 11:00 am

I can too, and it just feels so wrong for them to take advantage of that!

kornmuhme · July 30, 2015 11:43 am

I found the article quite nice and amusing, not sarcastic. It gives a suitable insight to fan life as it just is!
And if there were tickets for 500 pounds or 1500 - believe me, they would be sold!

Ah-chie · July 30, 2015 12:58 pm

kornmuhme wrote:
I found the article quite nice and amusing, not sarcastic. It gives a suitable insight to fan life as it just is!
And if there were tickets for 500 pounds or 1500 - believe me, they would be sold!

I totally agree. I thought the tone of the article was quite respectful considering the topic (re: examining the whole "excited fan" milieu surrounding Hamlet). And I am quite confident knowing the newspaper business like I do, that the NYT made each person quoted fully aware that they were being spoken to for an article for publication when they were interviewed. It's standard practice. But I have never heard of anyone giving an "advance" warning about an interview for a couple of quotes in print (I have heard of it for radio, etc. but not print).

About the cost of the tickets... In an ideal world all the tickets would be reasonably priced, but in reality it takes a lot of money to put on a production of this scope, so those wonderfully generous 10£ tickets have to be subsidized somewhere else down the line or the production wouldn't be done at all. If that means some tickets are sold for more then that's what has to be done. I don't think any of the higher priced tickets are out of line actually - not from my personal experience with going to live theatre in a variety of venues from around the world and considering who you are having the opportunity to see perform (if you want to see the very best performers expect to pay according to their talent if you can afford it).

If Dan and I weren't going to Australia at that time (and having maxed out our entertainment funds this year) I would gladly spend 95£, 200£, 600£ p/p or more to see BC in action! And then I would have to add the airplane from Canada, hotel and other expenses on top of that. But then we have that sort of income at our disposal and we happily support the arts whenever we can because we both of really enjoy it.

I am glad the Barbican had the opportunity (and going by what I read, it was at BC's insistence) to offer lower price tickets (as well as all those school performances) to a wide range of audiences (from all levels of income and circumstances). It helps broaden the base of theatre goers. I really don't see any justification for calling them out about the higher price items when it is precisely because of this that they were able to make the lower price tickets available as well.

-Val

SolarSystem · July 30, 2015 1:12 pm

Opinions differ. In my opinion selling tickets in the last rows of the stalls for more money than tickets in the first rows is at least questionable.
Apart from that, let's not forget all those memberships the Barbican has sold just because of this production.

And what exactly do you mean by "advance warning"...? You either are doing an interview or you aren't.
Anyway, in Germany it is not uncommon to double-check the quotes you have used in your article with the person you are quoting. It's not standard, but it's not unusual, either. I tend to do this quite often, just to make sure.

Last edited by SolarSystem (July 30, 2015 1:40 pm)

gently69 · July 30, 2015 1:20 pm

Ah-chie wrote:
I really don't see any justification for calling them out about the higher price items when it is precisely because of this that they were able to make the lower price tickets available as well.

-Val

Seats that cost 62,50 when the ticket sale started... selling them now for 95. That's okay for you? I'm sure the tickets for 10 Pounds won't blow their calculations up, even without this increase of prices.

Btw, what are your experiences in theatre productions, Ah-Chie?

Last edited by gently69 (July 30, 2015 1:27 pm)

Ah-chie · July 30, 2015 2:23 pm

I have personal experience of going to live theatre in many different venues - I have been to shows in LA, San Francisco, New York (both Broadway and off-Broadway), London, Athens, Washington DC, Boston, Charleston SC., Detroit, many times in Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, Quebec City, Stratford, Paris, Japan, and we're currently booked to go to see Cate Blanchett in Sydney Australia when we go there in September. Those are just the ones I remember - there might be a few I am leaving out. And we regularly support our local home town and regional theatre as well. My parents started me going to plays when I was in my early adolescence (perhaps when I was 11) and I am 61 now so it proabably adds up to well over a hundred plays easy that I have seen in many different venues.

I have also been a volunteer in our local theatre company and know many folks in that troupe, but personally I don't have very much experience of that end of the business (although I have written reviews of plays for the local media in the past and studied film and theatre in university).

But my point is I would consider myself a fairly seasoned theatre goer (as well as opera and classical concerts) and that sort of thing costs a lot of money to produce, so I don't mind paying a sum conmisserable with what I am seeing on stage.

The selling of tickets for a valuable commodity that is in high demand at what I consider a reasonable price (even at 95£) is as well received by me as selling highly valuable tickets for the firesale prices of 10£. No one is making anyone buy a ticket to a play. And I know I read right from the start that the prices would varying so the increase in cost for the tickets now isn't a surprise in the least.

I still think that the 10£ tickets have to be made up somehow and the fact that they even offered the cheap tickets at all is an extremely generous one to begin with - so I am completely comfortable with more expensive tickets now and wouldn't mind paying more so others (with less means) can get in for less than I do. That's just the way I feel and I respect that others have different opinions.

Edit: I re-read my answer and I think I perhaps came across more hostile than I wanted to. Please forgive me if I sound too snippy. I apologise.

-Val

Last edited by Ah-chie (July 30, 2015 2:27 pm)

gently69 · July 30, 2015 2:34 pm

Oh, sorry, I thought... Didn't know that you were talking about that only as a visitor of plays.
An experience I can't share to this extent.
I visited a lot of concerts and still can't imagine the costs. Well, certainly the difference between me and...

Last edited by gently69 (July 30, 2015 2:39 pm)

SusiGo · July 30, 2015 3:31 pm

Living in Germany I am very spoilt because we have a lot of subsidised communal theatres offering excellent productions at affordable ticket prices. And also private events like the Shakespeare Festival at the rebuilt Globe Theatre which I visit every year are not very expensive and can be afforded by young people and students.

That said the problem with the Hamlet tickets for me is not the price of 95 pounds as such but the fact that they are more expensive than before. There is no reason to sell seats at a higher price than before apart from the wish to make money.

Last edited by SusiGo (July 30, 2015 3:33 pm)

SolarSystem · July 30, 2015 5:24 pm

SusiGo wrote:
That said the problem with the Hamlet tickets for me is not the price of 95 pounds as such but the fact that they are more expensive than before. There is no reason to sell seats at a higher price than before apart from the wish to make money.

Yes. A point I was trying to make in an earlier post.
If it was financially possible for the Barbican to sell those tickets for a cheaper price when tickets went on sale last August, then why do they have to make them more expensive now? And please don't tell me it's because they've suddenly realized that otherwise the production won't be profitable.

ukaunz · July 31, 2015 2:43 am

Benedict's name is probably used as click bait for this article
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/theatre-dance/features/benedict-cumberbatch-has-1480-lines-in-hamlet--so-whats-the-secret-to-actors-memory-skills-10428544.html
but it is an interesting bit of trivia. 1480 lines!

kornmuhme · July 31, 2015 7:44 pm

SusiGo wrote:
Living in Germany I am very spoilt because we have a lot of subsidised communal theatres offering excellent productions at affordable ticket prices.

Yes, but don't forget that all our cultural life such as theatres, opera houses, education programmes etc. are financially supported by Federal Government and Federal States. Otherwise they couldn't survive. I don't know what's it like in GB.

SusiGo · July 31, 2015 7:49 pm

Yes, as I said, subsidised theatres.

gently69 · August 5, 2015 9:46 am

Queue this morning for tickets.

Source: http://freewomenxgrape.tumblr.com/post/125915487942/because-photographs-of-queues-are-so-wonderfully

SolarSystem · August 5, 2015 10:02 am

I would queue 500 miles,
and I would queue 500 more...

...sorry, wrong fandom. Sort of.

nakahara · August 5, 2015 10:46 am

Hmmm, even if it´s queing, it looks exciting.

SusiGo · August 5, 2015 2:57 pm

Bravo!

http://www.radiotimes.com/news/2015-08-05/why-benedict-cumberbatch-fans-are-the-perfect-audience-for-hamlet

tonnaree · August 5, 2015 3:18 pm

SusiGo wrote:
Bravo!

http://www.radiotimes.com/news/2015-08-05/why-benedict-cumberbatch-fans-are-the-perfect-audience-for-hamlet

You just beat me to posting this Susi! Lovely compliments from the Radio Times.