The Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) is re-opening the renovated Swan Theatre for the first time since the pandemic, for a stage adaptation of Maggie O’Farrell’s award-winning Hamnet.
Adapted for the stage by Lolita Chakrabarti and directed by Erica Whyman, the production will open from 1 April 2023 and run for 11 weeks.
Hamnet, named after William Shakespeare’s eldest son, is a fictional account of Shakespeare’s wife and family, with the famous playwright relegated to a background role. The novel follows the titular Hamnet’s final days alive before he dies aged 11, as well as imagining a creative and fascinating for Shakespeare’s wife, ‘Agnes.’
O’Farrell’s eighth novel won multiple awards, including the 2020 Women’s Prize for Fiction, and was named Book of The Year by both Waterstones and Dalkey Literary Awards.
O’Farrell has praised the RSC, Chakrabarti, and Whyman for their work on the stage production, expressing the poignancy of the fact that “Hamnet the boy will now be appearing in a play with his name, in the very town where he lived and died”.
Hamnet signifies the formal re-opening of the infamous Swan Theatre, situated in Stratford-upon-Avon. Modifications include new lighting, sound and video infrastructure, the introduction of new, wider seats, and an increase in the number of wheelchair spaces.
Priority booking for the show will open from 10am on Wednesday 16 November, with public booking available shortly afterwards, from 10am on Tuesday 29 November.
Further details of The Swan’s 2023 programme will be released early next year.
Words by Emily Nutbean
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Image credit: © RSC