Hamlet - Tom Hiddleston, Kenneth Branagh, RADA fundraiser

Then I have no doubts that all those people who are bothered and want to see Hiddles in Hamlet will no doubt thank you for your choosing not to enter the ballot and giving them all a slightly better chance of winning.

I feel that pain Kathryn- as much as for me this isn't a 'must must see' (more a 'hmm would like to see') it IS incredibly frustrating that no amount of savvy ticket buying will result in seeing it.

If I win then I'll certainly take you up on this!

I'm not gonna pay £95 for this, but I'll have a go for £45

I never win anything so not sure I'm helping but I'll send good thoughts to you all!

LOL. Yeah, it'll be interesting to see what happens with reviews. I suppose one of the professionals is bound to end up with a ticket somehow...

You may well be getting lots of chances to go at this rate! Another possible offer here as I don't think anyone else I know will want to pay £95. Or even £45! 

Having said that, 5 Angels in America ballots and absolutely nothing. So I have no ballot luck. Or maybe it's my turn 

I do understand the frustration that some people feel with ballots but given the choice of that or getting online at certain o' clock, refreshing, queuing, website crashing, more queuing, and finally no ticket, I'd probably prefer the ballot. 

Anyway, good luck all 

Hmm, been thinking about this, and I reckon it's very much a 'plan b' situation.

Branagh says they've been talking about doing Hamlet together for 7 years. I suspect they weren't talking about doing it as a 3-week fundraiser all that time, but they were talking about a Hamlet who was reasonably young - certainly under 40. I reckon they had planned a full run but realised, comparing diaries, that they just not going to have the time to do it together in the next few years, and ended up finding a way to still be able to do it together if only for a tiny amount of time. The fundraising aspect is a way of justifying it.

In fact, I'm wondering if a full 3 month run was on the cards for this year, until Marvel changed their filming schedule. Originally they announced that they were going to film the next 2 Avengers films simultaneously, over the first 6 months of this year. Rumour has it that Hiddleston was to be involved something like March to July. Then they realised that the scheduling was impossible, and changed to doing the 2 films back to back - Avengers Infinity War wrapped a couple of weeks ago, then everyone has a few weeks off, then they start filming Avengers 4 between September and February next year. Hiddleston may well be needed in fits and starts across that period, which is what seemed to happen with Infinity War.

I hope so, Emi! My fear is that they've done it this way because it's their only foreseeable way to do it together.

It's a hell of a lot of work for a 3-week run, and a tiny audience - they've probably already spent longer working it than they'll spend performing it. Surely they'd want to transfer it if at all possible? I pray to the theatre gods that we'll see it elsewhere - Hiddleston has nothing announced to film past Feb 2018, but of course that doesn't mean he's got nothing booked. I'm not sure what Branagh's schedule looks like.

I knew Branagh wouldn't resist... ))

Will be interesting to hear the reviews on this - on one hand, I rate Mr Hiddleston highly and believe Hamlet is up his street and he's certainly been doing it in his head for a long time. But will it be a coherent, inventive, thought through production as a whole? For now, it looks like the rest of the cast has just been called in, they probably won't have enough time to rehearse and yes, we all know the reason behind the show... Foundraising, which is lovely, important cause, but will anyone who end up in the audience care about anything else except one of the most popular British actors giving his Dane? I don't know. Might be good, might be a waste. Certainly will be intimate and curious at least.

Good luck to those who entered the ballot!

I got this too and waited for about fifteen minutes without success. I gave up and refreshed the page, but now am not sure whether I managed to sign up or not. Am I supposed to get a confirmation email?

It'll be especially interesting because they're not having a press night and inviting critics - the only way professional critics will get in is being lucky in the ballot or knowing/bribing someone who is!