Review: HAMNET at Shakespeare Theatre Company

It’s a little surprising that in 40 years, that a production from the Royal Shakespeare Company has never before visited Washington’s Shakespeare Theatre Company (though the opposite is true — a Shakespeare Theater Company production of “Love’s Labor’s Lost” played Stratford-upon-Avon 20 years ago). 

But the Royal’s production of ‘Hamnet” based on the hit novel by Maggie O’Farrell, and adapted by playwright Lolita Chakrabarti (“Life of Pi”) was such a success when it debuted in England in 2023, breaking box office records before moving to the West End, the entire production is on a brief tour of the U.S. that played Chicago before D.C. and heads to San Francisco next month. 

Between the UK premiere and the U.S. dates, of course, came Chloé Zhao’s celebrated film of the same name, which she co-wrote with O’Farrell. It won a Golden Globe for best picture and an Oscar for the remarkable work by its lead actress Jessie Buckley. 

The play and the movie, then, will always be compared, though both were adapted independent of the other and both largely follow the action of the original book, which makes the case that one of Shakespeare’s greatest plays, “Hamlet,” was in part inspired by the death of a son with a very similar name. .

Each of the interpretations flesh out the imagined family life of the young Bard, then just a Latin teacher with a penchant for books in rural Stratford, who comes upon a fascinating, fiercely independent woman who spends her days in the woods, summoning birds of pray and conjuring rumors of witchcraft from confused locals.

They hit it off. Each of their struggling families has concerns about their pairing, especially when she finds that she’s pregnant. They set up a household and quickly add to it. In addition to their daughter, they have a set of twins, the female of which seems sickly. They worry her illness will lead to her death, but she unexpectedly transfers her plague to her twin and the shock of the death stuns and mortifies the family.

That the adaptation was conceived during the pandemic, the looming contagion and air of death (and the bird-like plague masks of the era’s doctors) bring back all the fears and shared grief of the not so long ago COVID era, which began just six years ago this month. And it lends a real gravity and immediacy to the piece.

Will seems a little detached from the pain — he spends most his time in London where he’s had unexpected success writing plays, he doesn’t cry when his son passes, but he’s working it all through his head so when he writes the tale of his Danish king, phrases like “What a piece of work is a man” is fresh in mind.

To think that “Hamlet” was a result of a beloved son’s death is still a bit of a stretch — in any form of the story. But it shows the power of art to transform pain and demonstrates the shattering effect it has on the mourning mother who sneaks into the Globe theater to witness it. 

That may have been the most powerful part of the film, where Buckley’s revelation comes tremblingly amid the throngs. In the play, necessarily, she stands alone, so it loses a degree of power. Likewise, the emphasis on a outdoor countryside so lush in the cinema, is lost on a striking, versatile, but somewhat stark wooden set (by Tom Piper) that serves as several homes and an intimate loft as well as the eventual Globe.

But as Shakespeare also said in “Hamlet,” “The play’s the thing.” So there’s something about having this performed live that eclipses the movie, Oscar and all. The actors are so assured in these roles they know so well, so dynamic and intense in their interactions in a world directed by Erica Whyman that fairly zips along so seamlessly. It’s a gift that this entire production has made its way from Stratford-upon-Avon to F St. NW. 

Kemi-Bo Jacobs, as the Anne Hathaway character known here as Agnes, is ferociously incendiary, untamed in the wild and wailing her way through two bouts of childbirth and a death. It’s amazing she has to go through it all nightly. 

Rory Alexander is smitten, supportive and solidly righteous as Will (and is certainly more believable as a burgeoning literary giant than Paul Mescal was in the film). 

The couple maintains a tight bond despite all the animosity thrown toward them. There’s Nigel Barrett  as Will’s demanding and unreliable father (the big bearded actor returns to become a more jovial Falstaff type amid the London troupe). And there's some fire from Agnes’ snapping stepmother, played by Victoria Elliott.

The twins, Ajani Cabey and Saffron Day, are cavorting from the play’s start, though their seemingly ghostly presence is not exactly clear until later. Though they both look much older than the stated 11, they retain their forever connection.

The set is largely utilitarian in its wooden slats, but there is some fanciful staging of the pregnancies — with Agnes’ belly wrapped in a bolt of white linen, with the babies delivered as further linen bundles. The costumes, also by set designer Piper, subtly change to finery once Will’s plays begin to sell. 

The action and Whyman’s direct dialog makes the drama come alive for audiences who may still think Shakespeare’s prose eludes them. And it gives a context to Shakespeare’s past that deserves to be as well known as the film. 

Photo credit: Kemi-Bo Jacobs and Rory Alexander in “Hamnet.” Photo by Kyle Flubacker. 

Running time: About two hours and 30 minutes, including one 15-minute intermission. 

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