Whyman’s tight direction keeps the story moving at the right pace and still manages to acknowledge the structure of the novel. We can never know how close the story comes to real life, but that’s not the point of Hamnet, instead this heartfelt play shows us that from great grief can come something uniquely beautiful
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Hamnet is the latest book adaptation to hit West End Theatres and this story of the mostly undocumented family of William Shakespeare is a literary success, but can the theatrical version live up to these heights?
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“A stage version of Maggie O’Farrell’s 1.5m-selling 2020 novel ‘Hamnet’ feels like it should be an effortless home run for the RSC...But this adaptation is a palpable miss...I fully appreciate why it’s difficult to replicate in a play, but the character feels overexposed here, which really drains the book’s brilliant final scene of power.”
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“ ‘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.”
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“This is a solid, elegant piece of storytelling that challenges the idea that genius is ever the work of one person alone.”
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“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.”
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“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...Those splashes of genial humour aren’t enough, though, to compensate for the longueurs.”
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“It may seem like I disliked Hamnet and truth be told, I really didn’t. The play was pleasant enough and I found myself entertained throughout...The most frustrating part is that Hamnet has all of the elements necessary to create what should have been a brilliant play but, for one reason or another, its full potential is never fully realised.”
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