Hamnet Reviews Round-up [Updated]

"Moving stage adaptation of Maggie O’Farrell’s novel about Shakespeare’s son" (Garrick Theatre London)

"Lolita Chakrabarti’s rich drama for the RSC comes to London’s Garrick Theatre"

"She’s beautifully played by Madeleine Mantock as a warm, grounded, clear-sighted woman, whose deeper vision allows to her spy something profound in the cocky young Latin tutor (Tom Varey) who comes courting."

"We lose the novel’s interiority, its beautifully textured descriptions and the looping time structure that wraps death and life around one another. Here events unfold chronologically. At times that feels rushed or splintered and we don’t sit long enough with characters. Hamnet doesn’t feature fully until after the interval. But there are riches too in translating the story to stage. Chakrabarti’s play is in constant conversation with Shakespeare’s dramas."

"What’s most touching is that, by bringing O’Farrell’s story to stage, Chakrabarti and the creative team are able to respond by making Hamnet seem to live again."

"A solid, elegant take on Maggie O’Farrell’s bestseller" (Garrick Theatre London)

"Initially slow, the show about Shakespeare and his family weaves a beguiling narrative web around the creation of life and art"

"Erica Whyman’s production, her swansong after a decade with the Royal Shakespeare Company, is initially stiff and slow but weaves a beguiling narrative web around the creation of human life, of art, and of a family unit as a refuge."

"Tom Piper’s blonde-wood set nicely evokes the frame of an Elizabethan rural home and also continues the contours of the Garrick’s balconies, turning it into the “wooden O” of Shakespeare’s original Globe."

"Chakrabarti distills the mysticism of O’Farrell’s book and foregrounds Hamnet and Judith, who are given an energetic sibling rapport by Ajani Cabey and Alex Jarrett. Mantock is especially moving in her grief, Varey better earlier on when Shakespeare is just a callow youth than in the glib glimpses of his later writing life"

"Maggie O’Farrell’s bestseller gets caught between raw power and Tudor twee" (Garrick Theatre London)

"The RSC’s adaptation of this Women’s Prize-winning novel about Shakespeare’s son has the whiff of a naff heritage tourist attraction at the start – but the second act will break your heart"

"Staged by Royal Shakespeare Company artistic director Erica Whyman, this story is an absorbing and emotive (if less than groundbreaking) plunge into the world of Tudor England."

"Whyman’s production aims for the same sense-filling richness but although Tom Piper’s wood-beamed set design has a welcome authenticity, other elements fall into the naff territory of a heritage tourist attraction: bursts of cod-Renaissance muzak jangle between scenes, the amplified whispers of children play over speakers, and everything’s lit in a lovely bright golden glow."

"... Hamnet shows that Shakespeare compartmentalised his life as a way of coping, retreating away from his wife yet drawing on his suppressed pain to write his most haunting passages. It’s a moving commentary on his life, one that restores the family life that has slipped out of his story to its rightful, central place."

"Siblings and their tragic legacies come under the spotlight" (Garrick Theatre London)

"Erica Whyman’s RSC production plays out on Tom Piper’s wooden-beamed set, which doubles as a gabled Tudor home and a theatre. It has likeable leads in Agnes (Madeleine Mantock) and William (Tom Varey), with fine support from Peter Wight, as the boorish patriarch John Shakespeare and the actor Will Kempe, and Liza Sadovy as Mary, William’s mother. Cabey (who also plays Hamlet) and Jarrett convince as adult actors playing avid adolescents."

"Chakrabarti’s enjoyable theatre-set scenes flag Shakespeare’s use of doubling characters. Hearts should crack at the concluding scene, but while this staging loyally recreates O’Farrell’s characters, it lacks her novel’s emotional impact."

"The tragic story of the Bard’s son doesn’t grip" (Garrick Theatre London)

"The characterisation is flimsy, the storytelling perfunctory and the performances strikingly uneven."

"Fans of the much-loved book may well be happy to take their chances anyway. But it’s hard to warm to a production so lacking in verve and energy. The director Erica Whyman has to take much of the blame: too many of the overly brief episodes, skimming by like a film screenplay, are the cue for intrusive shuffling of scenery."

"It doesn’t help that the central character of Hathaway (or Agnes, as she is called here, with a silent “g”) seems so oddly insubstantial. The newcomer Madeleine Mantock won admiring reviews in Stratford, but at the Garrick she struggled to bring depth to an underwritten character."

"... there’s fun to be had in watching the rising playwright spar with Will Kemp and Richard Burbage in rehearsals. Those splashes of genial humour aren’t enough, though, to compensate for the longueurs."

"Half-formed" (Garrick Theatre London)

"Wooden RSC adaptation of Maggie O’Farrell’s treasured novel"

"Inevitably, in Chakrabarti’s version, directed by Erica Whyman, whole chapters are skipped, characters cut and plot points reduced in order to make the story fit into a stage-approved timeframe. But this stripping back leaves us with some half-formed characters. Madeleine Mantock’s Agnes, while easily likeable, has none of the mystique O’Farrell painted, and this makes Shakespeare’s fascination with her less persuasive."

"After a limp first half, things liven up as the children are properly introduced. Ajani Cabey is meticulous as a lithe and watchful Hamnet, Alex Jarrett as Judith is mischievous but just as convincing in grief, and Phoebe Campbell, as older sister Susanna, oozes uptight self-pity."

"Piper’s adaptable set comes into its own in the production’s final moments... But like much else here, a rushed and thinly sketched final scene, in which Agnes reconnects with her husband when she sees his grief expressed through his artistry on stage, leaves us unmoved."

"This timid RSC adaptation of Maggie O’Farrell’s Shakespearean tearjerker fails to capture the book’s magic" (Garrick Theatre London)

"I’m sure there are extremely sensible reasons for her abandonment of the book’s non-linear structure and more experimental flourishes. But in doing so ‘Hamnet’ loses both pathos and intrigue, turning it into an episodic, linear account"

"The cast is solid, and Oguz Kaplangi’s electronic score is both powerfully atmospheric and a much-needed note of modernity. But considering how expansive and ambitious some RSC adaptations are, ‘Hamnet’ is disappointingly meek. This surely could and should have been much braver theatre."

"A palpable hit? Almost" (Swan Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon)

"The RSC adaptation of Maggie O'Farrell's novel about Shakespeare's son is a searing take on grief"

"At the epicentre of Shakespearean performance, yards from where this family lived and breathed, how does O’Farrell’s finely researched domestic drama land on stage? Pretty forcefully, I’d say, though it could do more forcefully still."

"In the book, the vitality of the little scamp gets rather smothered by the precise prose. Here, though beautifully animated by a wide-eyed Ajani Cabey (making his debut)... I’d love to know more about him, his friends, his life; overall, the bustle of Elizabethan England feels at one remove."

"The strength of Erica Whyman’s spare, fleet, gently atmospheric production lies in its principals..."

" In the mesmerising final scene, when Cabey rematerialises as the “sapling” actor charged with playing Hamlet, we finally get undiluted Shakespearean verse and an expression of grief distilled (“I have of late… lost all my mirth”). At that point the evening soars, and sears."

"An atmospheric and intimate adaptation of Maggie O’Farrell’s mega-hit novel" (Swan Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon)

"Erica Whyman’s production, now playing at the newly – and beautifully – renovated Swan Theatre, never rests on easy tropes, and manages to pull off a simplicity and innocence that defies that cynicism, evoking – and even harnessing – the strong sense of place at the heart of O’Farrell’s novel."

"The stage adaptation, by playwright Lolita Chakrabarti, is particularly linear compared to O’Farrell’s time-jumping novel, which makes sense in practice, but sometimes robs the play of the drama and intrigue you feel in the book."

"The adaptation does succeed in giving a clear voice and agency to the character of Agnes, played with gentle skill and, during the scenes of childbirth, grief and loss, roaring intensity by Madeleine Mantock."

"Alas, poor Hamnet, you struggle to make tears flow" (Swan Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon)

"... Lolita Chakrabarti’s largely adroitly condensed adaptation captures much of the spirit of the book. Erica Whyman’s evocative and beautifully acted production is often touching and witty too. Yet somehow my tear ducts remained dry. This is a good night at the theatre, but not the great one we might have dreamt of from such moving source material."

"Chakrabarti keeps the key moments and exchanges but rejigs the story strictly chronologically. She puts into dialogue moments that the book sees through the thoughts of its protagonists. The result is more pacy but less heady."

"Hamnet, when he arrives at the start of Act Two, is played adorably by the adult Anjani Cabey... Without Hamnet’s presence from the off, though, he plays little more than a cameo role. So his death, the pivotal event, is sad, but the feelings don’t have room to run deep."

"Madeleine Mantock is a gloriously sensual Agnes" (Swan Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon)

"Adaptation of Maggie O’Farrell’s Shakespearean novel has a lush loveliness that will win hearts"

"... directed with lush loveliness by Erica Whyman, it is as snug and supple a fit for the RSC as a bespoke kid glove."

"Madeleine Mantock is a gloriously vital, sensual Agnes, her gaze bright and direct, while Tom Varey’s William combines swagger with tenderness and ingenuity."

"Something of the texture and particularity of O’Farrell’s writing eludes this soft-focus version: the plotting is careful and linear, the characterisation somewhat flattened. But Whyman’s production is otherwise beautifully done – a historical-biographical fantasia sure to win plenty of hearts."

"Slick adaptation captures Shakespeare’s horrified unravelling" (Swan Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon)

"Lolita Chakrabarti’s staging of Maggie O’Farrell’s moving novel about the death of the playwright’s son – and his resurrection in Hamlet – is powerfully played, with the occasional cheesy line"

"Agnes, charmingly played by Madeleine Mantock, is the focus of Lolita Chakrabarti’s light but slick adaptation in the handsomely refurbished Swan theatre at Stratford-upon-Avon."

"Directed by Erica Whyman, it is a story of parental loss but looks more like Shakespeare in Love at first – sweet, easy on the eye, with heavy helpings of romance... Chakrabarti’s adaptation gives O’Farrell’s narrative a clear linear chronology, although the interiority of grief feels flattened, there are a few cheesy lines and cornily whispered voiceovers."

" It is a rather broad-brush portrait of the Shakespeares’ grief, but knows just how to pull at our heartstrings all the same."

"This adaptation lacks the boldness and riches of Maggie O’Farrell’s novel" (Swan Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon)

"The Women’s Prize-winning bestseller about Shakespeare’s family life – and the death of his 11-year-old son – is at last on stage in Stratford-upon-Avon. It’s slick, but far too slight"

"If any other venue had snaffled the rights to this book, Shakespeare surely would have turned uneasily in his grave in Holy Trinity Church, which lies a few minutes beyond the comfortably refurbished Swan Theatre."

"A little of the richness of the book is undoubtedly lost in the constant churn of short scenes with which Chakrabarti fills her five-act structure"

"Erica Whyman’s production moves confidently and fluidly over Tom Piper’s simple wooden set, with the 14-strong ensemble constantly hard at work. The show is anchored by a luminous performance from Madeleine Mantock"

"Plays inspired by the family life of Warwickshire’s most famous son will never not captivate audiences, but this, unlike its source material, is not a hit."

"Tender take on Maggie O’Farrell’s novel" (Swan Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon)

"The relationship and tragic parenthood of Shakespeare and Anne Hathaway reaches the stage"

"Adapter Lolita Chakrabarti has crafted a quieter show for the Royal Shakespeare Company, without the intellectual dazzle of her celebrated take on Life of Pi."

"In Erica Whyman’s bare-boards production, the bee-keeping, animal-feeding daily grind of rural life sweatily conjured up in the novel is here confined to sound effects."

"It’s a quiet, thoughtful entertainment — screaming birth-scenes excepted — that builds to a fine intensity. The book still packs the greater emotional punch."

"Hamnet — to see or not to see?" (Swan Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon)

"The bestselling novel about Shakespeare’s lost son gets the RSC treatment"

"Period costumes have not been much seen at the Royal Shakespeare Company in its recent unhappy years, but Hamnet proves a watchable, ultimately rather touching doublet-and-hose account of William Shakespeare’s domestic set-up."

"The strong-minded Agnes has mystic gifts that connect her to the dead “through the walls of the room of life”. She must have good hearing, because the voices whispering to her were pretty fuzzy to my cloth ears. Mind you, I caught the show at an early preview and any audibility problems may by now have been fixed."

"The old man’s dyspepsia is overdone and the production misses a trick by casting adults as the youngsters. Child actors might have increased the emotional force."

"Shakespeare’s wife moves centre stage in Lolita Chakrabarti’s pivotal adaptation of Maggie O’Farrell’s Hamnet" (Swan Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon)

"Not since Matilda has there been such a female-centred production at the RSC."

"This is not the best play ever seen at Stratford – that might after all be Hamlet. Yet though not always fully charged with power, Lolita Chakrabarti’s adaptation of Maggie O’Farrell’s 2020 novel is pivotal"

"A bewitching soundscape by Xana supplies the sense of an inner life permeated by untamed and spectral noises: birdsong, whispers, the flap of wings, rhythmic tappings that could be the pecking of beaks or knocks from more mysterious sources."

"As Agnes, Madeleine Mantock has a commanding serenity, which is savaged by her son’s death."

"The riskiest moments provide the finest touches: when Chakrabarti interpolates some Globe rehearsal episodes; when Agnes gives birth, her babies delivered from a shroud-like gown like magic gifts. Shot through with promises, the production can tauten."

"Harrowing tale of the Bard's home life is pure theatre gold" (Swan Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon)

"Madeleine Mantock as Agnes starts blandly but ends up a force field. The howling separation of mother from her boy is awful to witness. Watch, too, her estrangement from William as he returns home, famous, and she detects the scent of other women."

"Thrillingly, Hamnet the dead boy is the key that unlocks Hamlet the living play. My guess is that fans will relive the pleasure they found in this much-loved novel, if not quite shed the tears it induced on the page."