Initial casting has been announced for the West End transfer of the RSC’s adaptation of Maggie O’Farrell’s Hamnet.
Reprising their roles from the RSC’s Stratford-upon-Avon run are lead actors Madeleine Mantock (Agnes Hathaway) and Tom Varey (William Shakespeare), alongside Sarah Belcher (Joan), Will Brown (Burbage/Father John), Ajani Cabey (Hamnet), Frankie Hastings (Eliza/Customer), Karl Haynes (Ned), Alex Jarrett (Judith), Hannah McPake (Jude) and Peter Wight (John/Will Kempe).
Further casting is still to be announced.
The show opens at London’s Garrick Theatre this autumn, from 30 September 2023 to 6 January 2024. It is set to open to the biggest box office advance in the Garrick Theatre’s history. Read reviews for the Stratford-upon-Avon run here.
Hamnet pulls back the curtain on the story of William Shakespeare, the greatest writer in the English language, and the woman who was the constant presence and purpose of his life.
Maggie O’Farrell’s novel of Hamnet has sold over a 1.5 million copies worldwide and was named Waterstones Book of the Year and winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award in 2020. O’Farrell also won the 2020 Women’s Prize for Fiction – the UK’s most prestigious annual book award celebrating and honouring fiction written by women.
Directed by Erica Whyman, the play is adapted by award-winning playwright Lolita Chakrabarti (Life of Pi, Red Velvet, Hymn), and features design by Tom Piper, lighting by Prema Mehta, sound by Simon Baker, music by Oğuz Kaplangi, casting by Amy Ball CDG and movement by Ayse Tashkiran.
Hamnet is produced by the Royal Shakespeare Company and Neal Street Productions, in association with Hera Pictures.
Book tickets to Hamnet at the Garrick Theatre in London
