THEATRE - William Cook
HAMNET
This is a headache for historians, but a godsend for creative writers, who can indulge their wildest fantasies. Maggie O’Farrell and Lolita Chakrabarti are the latest in a long line of scribes who’ve turned to fiction to pad out a biography of the Bard. In 2020, O’Farrell wrote a powerful novel called Hamnet, named after Shakespeare’s only son, who died when he was 11. Her book was an acclaimed bestseller, and now Chakrabarti has turned it into an intriguing, thought-provoking play. Most writers tend to focus on Shakespeare’s theatrical life in London. In contrast, O’Farrell chose to write about the family he left behind in Stratford-upon-Avon: his wife, Anne Hathaway, and their three children, Susanna, Judith and Hamnet. This makes for a less spectacular story, but one that’s ultimately far more interesting. Rather than a rumbustious backstage romp, O’Farrell wrote an intense domestic drama, and Chakrabarti has adapted it, pretty...
I’m afraid this isn’t one of our four free articles available in full, which are set out in the first two rows of the ‘Magazine’ page.
Please click here to find them.
To buy a digital version of this issue for just £2.99, click here
