Review: HAMNET at Chicago Shakespeare Theater

Royal Shakespeare Company’s Hamnet is a dramatic and languid stage adaptation of Maggie O’Farrell’s 2020 buzzy novel of the same name. Lolita Chakrabarti’s script is more economical in its use of language than O’Farrell’s novel — though that’s largely because her story comes from dialogue instead of lengthy exposition — and it’s a moving character study. HAMNET centers on a fictional imagining of the relationship between William Shakespeare and his wife Agnes Hathaway as they navigate their grief following the loss of their 11-year-old son Hamnet to the bubonic plague.

The play preserves the show’s dual timelines, though it presents them chronologically. O’Farrells’ novel weaves between present and past, showing us the present day of Hamnet and his twin sister Judith’s illness and alternating with passages about Will and Agnes’s love story. Chakrabarti’s script smartly maintains this framework — we meet Hamnet and Judith at the beginning of the play. But the action then proceeds forward in time, which makes it easier to follow onstage. Like the text, director Erica Whyman’s production has a general sense of sprawl and metaphor. Tom Piper’s set has an airyness to it, and the main open play space and large wood structure fittingly recall Shakespeare’s Globe. It also lends whimsy to the production, reinforcing that this is an imagining of what Shakespeare’s private life might have been like. The central concept and themes are fitting programming for Chicago Shakespeare Theater as they, of course, directly engage with Shakespeare in a modern way. 

Fans of the novel will find much to appreciate. I prefer more action and plot in my theater, however, so I thought this was slow-moving. Though the play is more concise than O’Farrell’s novel, I think the two hour and 30 minute run-time could benefit from a 20 minute or so trim. 

Hamnet succeeds most as a focused character study, and it’s in the end, really Agnes’s play. Fortunately, Kemi-Bo Jacobs is terrifically cast in this leading role. She plays Agnes with a deep sense of calm and command, and a slight sprightliness that speaks to her character’s supposed clairvoyant capabilities. Indeed, once Agnes and Shakespeare marry, she foretells that they will only have two children. Ultimately, she gives birth to three: their eldest daughter Susanna ( Ava Hinds-Jones) and then later the twins Judith (Saffron Dey) and Hamnet (Ajani Cabey). The inevitable tragic ending to Agnes’s story is extremely Shakespearean. But Jacobs’s performance doesn’t give away the ending at the beginning. Her portrayal of Agnes’s ceaseless grief over Hamnet’s death feels immediate and raw. She’s a powerful central figure.

Though Shakespeare himself has been imagined many times on stage and screen, I think Rory Alexander has a warm and appealing approach to the character. His Shakespeare is more gentle and introspective — but still flirtatious in his seduction of Agnes. HAMNET portrays a softer side of Shakespeare, particularly in his relationship with his stern and unyielding father John (Nigel Barrett), who scoffs at his son’s disdain for hard physical work. While I don’t think Jacobs and Alexander have much romantic chemistry necessarily, they play off each other nicely as individual performers.

Though his name is the show’s title, Hamnet is a smaller role by contrast. Still, Cabey is nice and earnest in the role and his secondary part revealed later in the play is a moving arc in the context of Hamnet’s story. Dey has a welcome youthful energy as Judith. It’s easy to buy the sibling camaraderie between Hamnet and Judith, and that special twin relationship is core to the story.

While the script doesn’t use Shakespearean verse, overall Chakrabarti’s dialogue echoes both Shakespeare’s own plays and the dense, flowery language of O’Farrell’s text. I appreciate that this is a straightforward adaptation of O’Farrell’s novel and that the playwright translates it to a more linear narrative with plainer language — without losing the lushness that was part and parcel to O’Farrell’s writing style. Hamnet is a finely realized, though languorous and low on action, character study of a mother’s will to protect her children.

Royal Shakespeare Company’s Hamnet plays Chicago Shakespeare Theater in The Yard on Navy Pier, 800 East Grand Avenue, through March 8, 2026. Tickets start at $58.