Attention, theatre-lovers: For the best acting you'll see anywhere, the Royal Shakespeare Company and Neal Street Productions' Hamnet onstage now at Washington's Shakespeare Theatre Company is a must.
The show sold every seat and broke box office records in Stratford-upon-Avon before it crossed the pond to run in Chicago, Washington, and San Francisco, the only U.S. venues.
Most of the original cast came with it.
The play is based on Maggie O'Farrell's bestselling historical fiction, adapted by Lolita Chakrabarti.
Hamnet was the only son of William Shakespeare (1564-1616) and Anne Hathaway (1556-1623) who was born with his sister, Judith, a twin, in 1586.
Shortly after their birth, William Shakespeare (Rory Alexander) left his wife (Kemi-Bo Jacobs) and family to pursue writing and acting in London.
When Judith (Saffron Dey) suddenly became ill with plague symptoms when the twins were 10 or 11, a message was rushed to their father who hurried home.
But by the time he got there, Judith had recovered and Hamnet (Ajani Cabey) lay ill or had already died, likely before his father arrived.
To escape the suffering and grief, Shakespeare returned to London and continued his career.
After his death, the parents took solace knowing their son would live on in his father's works.
At the time of Hamnet's death, Shakespeare was writing comedies which he continued for several years until he began turning out his greatest tragedies, Hamlet, Othello, Macbeth, King Lear, Julius Caesar and others. In them scholars find links to Hamnet.
William and Anne whose name is changed to Agnes in the novel and in the play, married in 1582 when Anne was pregnant with Susannah (Ava Hinds-Jones), their oldest child.
Most sources say they didn't have a good marriage, and naturally, the fault is Anne's since evil rests with women, believed by some then and now. (See Eve in the Garden of Eden.)
Anne was eight years older than William, and it is suggested that she and her family trapped Shakespeare who was abused by his own father (forcefully played by Nigel Barrett).
Tom Piper's set design of scaffolding on three levels recalls the outlines of 16th century English Tudor housing, looking like the house where Shakespeare was born, with a loft which becomes a bedroom.
Like mice scurrying from place to place, it's mostly women who come and go, quickly changing the scenes by moving a rectangular table back and forth on the first level.
Every so often birds sing (sound by Simon Baker), reflective of Anne's love of them, their freedom and their homing return like William makes it from time to time.
Heard in the final act: "Let us eat and drink for tomorrow we die."
Others in the cast are Penny Layden as William's sympathetic mother, Mary, while Troy Alexander is Agnes's understanding brother, Bartholomew who rescues his sister more than once. Also, Elizabeth Connick, Heather Forster, Karl Haynes, Nicki Hobday, Matilda McCarthy, and Bert Seymour (the last two, the dance and fight captains, respectively).
Oğuz Kaplangi’s captivating music, mostly heard during scene changes, foreshadows the tension and conflict.
Prema Mehta's variable lighting techniques contribute to the sad environment and mood.
The artistic team includes the director, Erica Whyman, the RSC acting artistic director; fight director, Kate Waters; movement director, Ayşe Tashkiran; and stage managers, Marius Arnold-Clarke, Chloë Forestier-Walker, and Laura Smith.
About 2.5 hrs. with a 15-minute intermission.
Special performances are:
Audio Description - Saturday, April 4, 2p..m
Open Captioning - Wednesday, April 8, 12p.m. | Thursday, April 9, 7:30 p.m.Shakespeare Theatre Company, Harman Hall, 610 F St., NW, Washington, DC 20004. Now through April 12. Tickets start at $39 with discounts for those 35 and under. Enter code 26U35 in the promo code box; subject to availability.
Phone: 202-547-1122.
patricialesli@gmail.com
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