Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell adapted by Lolita Chakrabarti. The Garrick Theatre, 2 Charing Cross Road, London to 17th February 2024.

4****: William Russell.

Staged at the Swan theatre in Stratford earlier this year the Royal Shakespeare Company have brought this well received production to town for a fairly daring season – people do love the book on which it is based but whether with no star names Erica Whyman’s production will draw the town is anybody’s guess. The night I saw it the audience gave it a warm reception at the end but when the two principals returned for their joint bows the reception was slow to start and managed to warm up by the time the rest of the cast had returned. Nobody was on their feet and as one left the comments were of the “I found that very interesting” rather than “that was wonderful” kind. It is a beautifully played tale which focuses on that woman about whom little is known – Anne, here called Agnes, Hathaway Shakespeare’s wife and mother of his three children. It opens when they meet – she is a free spirit roaming the woods, a natural healer, who meets the young Latin tutor William. They fall in love, marry and then he follows his dream and goes to London to make gloves – his father, who regards him as a wastrel deals in skins, become first an actor and then a writer of plays returning home only at intervals while she rears their children, Susanna and the twins Judith and Hamnet. When the plague strikes Judith falls ill and Hamnet, who comforts her, contracts the disease, and dies. His father’s next play is Hamlet. The whole thing is very slickly done, and Madeleine Mantock is a warm and delightful Hathaway, coping with life without her husband, dealing in her herbs and potions, devoted most of all to her son so that his death throws her into a deep depression. Tom Varey as Shakespeare gets less chances to create the man and is possibly a little too old for the earlier scenes of Shakespeare in love but as the grief strick father he rises to the challenges and the reconciliation with his wife – she has come to London, sees the play performed and is aghast at the use of their son’s name – is very touching. Maybe Stratford life is all a bit rustic and jolly – lots of apples and fruits of the earth get dealt with on a table that comes and goes - and the children have little to do except leap around being naughty or loving while their elders are either indulgent or not as the case may be. It actually doesn’t help that Alani Cabey, who is very good as Hamnet, also plays Hamlet is the snatches of the play we see – maybe it just underlines what we have long grasped too much. But the scenes at the Globe where the actors squabble over the late delivery of scripts, change the lines to the author’s annoyance, and generally do what actors do are entertaining. The production by Erica Whyman keeps moving at pace and it all looks splendid but whether one knows more about Anne or Agnes by the end I am not at all sure. It could, however, prove a triumphant season.

Cast

Madeleine Mantock – Agnes.

Tom Varey – William.

Phoebe Campbell – Susannah.

Alex Jarrett – Judith.

Ajani Cabey – Hamnet.

Sarah Belcher – Joan, Agnes’ stepmother.

Gabriel Akuwudike – Bartholomew, her brother.

Mhairi Gayer – Caterina, her step-sister.

Peter Wright – Joh, William’s father.

Liza Sadvovy – Mary, his mother,

Frankie Hastings – Ned.

Mhairi Gayer – Tilly.

Hannah McPake – Jude.

Will Brown – Burbage.

Ajani Cabey – Thomas Day.

Peter Wright – Will Kempe.

Karl Haynes – Condell.

Will Brown – Father John.

Creatives

Director – Erica Whyman.

Designer – Tom Piper.

Lighting Designer – Prema Mehta.

Composer – Oguz Kaplangi.

Sound Designer – Simon Baker.

Movement Director – Ayse Tashkiran.

Dramaturg – Pippa Hill.

Fight Directir – Kate Waters.

Voice & Dialect – Liz Flint.