The Royal Shakespeare Company’s WhatsOnStage nominated production of Maggie O’Farrell’s Hamnet, played a sold-out run in the Swan Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon from 1 April to 17 June 2023. The production then transferred to the Garrick Theatre, London from 30 September 2023 to 17 February 2024.
Warwickshire, 1582. Agnes Hathaway, a natural healer, meets the Latin tutor, William Shakespeare. Drawn together by powerful but hidden impulses, they create a life together and make a family.
When the plague steals 11-year-old Hamnet from his loving parents, they must each confront their loss alone. And yet, out of the greatest suffering, something of extraordinary wonder is born.
Based on Maggie O’Farrell’s best-selling book and adapted by award-winning playwright Lolita Chakrabarti (Life of Pi, Red Velvet, Hymn), Hamnet pulls back a curtain on the story of the greatest writer in the English language and the woman who was the constant presence and purpose of his life.
Directed by Erica Whyman, with Set Design by Tom Piper, Lighting by Prema Mehta, Sound by Simon Baker, Music by Oğuz Kaplangi, Movement by Ayse Tashkiran, Fights by Kate Waters and Casting by Amy Ball CDG, Hamnet is a love letter to passion, birth, grief and the magic of nature.
For more information about the themes and content of this play see our content advisory page.
Hamnet is supported by RSC Production Circle Members Peggy Czyzak-Dannenbaum, Susan Tomasky and Ronald J Ungvarsky, and Marcia Whitaker.
Hamnet is a recipient of the Edgerton Foundation New Play Award
New Work at the RSC is generously supported by Hawthornden Foundation and The Drue and H.J. Heinz II Charitable Trust
