Hamnet - RSC Swan Theatre / Garrick

Very disappointing pricing (more expensive than Orlando and Bonnie and Clyde) so I guess I won't be booking a ticket in advance after all.

If anyone is looking for Stratford nows the time to look. About six dated have tickets available now, limited but until recently was showing as fully sold out.

Annoyingly I can't make any of the dates free!

Update, nearly every single date now has a handful of tickets to book!

Haven't had time to post this before, but I saw this last week. Overall I'd say the paper 3* reviews are about right. I've never read the book, but I did quickly skim through to see whether what I'd seen had similarities and it seems to. It focusses on Agnes and her inner voices (though poorly realised through ghostly voice-overs drifting about). The main issue with the staging is perhaps that they've tried to be too faithful so we end up with lots of bitty scenes, which they feel compelled to keep doing little scenery changes for. This could have been handled in a better fashion to keep the flow going, and some parts could have been dropped entirely. It also means that there's no real sense of impact in some impoirtant scenes because they're rushed through - in particular the closeness of Judith and Hamnet is never really built up enough to make it really matter. On the plus side, the cast are very good. And the revamped Swan is lovely.

Sorry you didn't make it this weekend. The Swan now a tad more comfortable with individual seats , not that bench stuff. It was a pleasant afternoon in the theatre but this play does not light my fire. Note, I haven't read the book and people who had said it was very different to it. It was chronological. It went through Will’s life from boyhood, meeting Agnes ie Ann Hathaway, the marriage, the babies, Will’s going to London and becoming one of the greatest writers in the Western canon, the  death of Hamnet. The play should have been called ‘Agnes’ because it is about her. She has healing powers and mystically hears and sees the dead. There is no ‘arc’ for her; she remains the same except for overwhelming grief. The other persons in Will’s life are sketched in: a sister, a baby brother, a dead sister and his daughters, a grumpy one and a mystic one. Hamnet is presented as a clever chap who loved and was beloved of all. His mother, Mary Arden, an important person imo, gets a few lines about her family and losing the money but his father is shown as a violent bully. Nuanced, not. Whether this will be a ‘hit’ coming to London, I can’t say but I think it would be a shame if it is taken as definitive, believed to be what happened. I think to sum up, it is plodding, repetitive ( two screaming birth scenes ) and unhistoric, lacking in dramatic power or development, clunky in the use of ‘poetic’ language and Shakespearean cliches. ( Burbage is always a large, no nonsense action man, isnt it?) Let us know what you think, Neil, when you have seen it.

I also saw Cymbeline. Different kettle of fish. 

Ahem, I’m not a non reader. Just haven't read this novel. I’m glad you are amused. Seems I am right that the play is about the wife and should be titled as such.

Not diggin in, though not sure what you mean by that. I might well read the book as many have praised it. But good books do not always make good plays. Imo, it isn’t a good play. It’s a docudrama 😁

The title isn't alright is it? The play has to be about the son to be so titled. It isn't. And it isn't about the son making his father into who he became, by having similar name to a Danish Prince. That is just silly. Diggin in enough for you? 

I saw this at today’s afternoon matinee; it was beautifully staged and acted, and an emotional response to Hamnet’s death from many audience members. I have read the book and felt it was a very good adaptation. Appreciated the improved seating.

Sorry, Alexandra, I didn’t get back to you sooner. I can see my comments are rather convoluted. What i mean is that calling the play Hamnet is trading on the name of the Play Hamlet. This play, Hamnet, attempts to show how WS was inspired by his son, the son’s tragic death and thereby became the brilliant playwright we know he became. 

We get it, you hate Erica Whyman.

The fact Hamnet has extended six weeks already probably is a dagger in the heart to the usual suspects.

“Sorry, Alexandra, I didn’t get back to you sooner. I can see my comments are rather convoluted. What i mean is that calling the play Hamnet is trading on the name of the Play Hamlet. This play, Hamnet, attempts to show how WS was inspired by his son, the son’s tragic death and thereby became the brilliant playwright we know he became.”

Still nonsense I’m afraid, Lynette. The play is called Hamnet because it’s a dramatisation of the book called Hamnet. And it’s a marvellous book which earns its title; I cannot recommend highly enough that you read it. You may feel that the play doesn’t work and/or doesn’t do justice to the book; I felt it was a decent stab at dramatising the book, and enjoyed it in its own right. Either way, to call it something else would have been like calling the adaptation of Wolf Hall “Cromwell” because Wolf Hall hardly featured in Hilary Mantel’s novel.

I agree. I saw it in Stratford and thought it was ok but nothing more. Part of its success there in my opinion was due to the popularity of the book and the fact that it re-opened the much-loved Swan theatre after its enforced closure during the pandemic and the building works.

After that for me EW's programming for the rest of the Swan season fell off a cliff, and was promoted more on the RSC website than the main house Shakespeare productions were, which seemed almost to be an afterthought.

I feel sorry for the new joint ADs and really do wish them well. You have to really hunt on the website to see much mention of them yet - there has been no mention in any Patrons' mailings of them as far as I can remember and all the press still is linked to EW. They are in charge but almost invisible so far.

In last week's tribute to the retiring Catherine Mallyon they said they were "preparing to announce their first season". It can't come soon enough for me.