Hamnet Reviews

Chicago Tribune - Recommended

"...There is no question that director Erica Whyman’s staging is highly creative, utilizing a mostly skeletal set from Tom Piper and injecting an admirable fluidity into the storytelling. Led by Kemi-Bo Jacobs and Rory Alexander, the cast of more than a dozen is highly kinetic and the work is as technically adept and centered on the body as you’d expect from the world’s leading classical theater company. (Troy Alexander, who plays Bartholomew, is especially good, as are Ava Hinds-Jones, who plays Susanna, and Nigel Barrett, playing William’s embittered father.)"

Chicago Sun Times - Highly Recommended

"...Director Erica Whyman shapes a story where warmth and compassion are wrapped around a deep well of sorrow, threaded with flashes of raging passion and passionate rage. Like “Hamlet,” “Hamnet” is a tragedy where romance curdles amid devastation, comedy blooms until tragedy snuffs it and somehow ends with hope. It’s a biting rom-com early on, a quill-to-the-heart later. “Hamnet” is also graced with snippets from Shakespeare’s plays — Whyman’s ensemble cast makes the words pierce and sing."

Chicago Stage and Screen - Highly Recommended

"...This story makes you think about all the unsung and unknown women of history who left no marks but birthed the children, kept the home and hearth, loved the men who were allowed to make the world what it is and lead lives we cannot know."

Let's Play Theatrical Reviews - Recommended

"...The cast of the play, featuring Kemi-Bo Jacobs as Agnes and Rory Alexander as William, delivered impressive performances. Jacobs beautifully captured the depth and complexity of Agnes's character, portraying her strength and vulnerability. Alexander embodied William Shakespeare, offering a visual and realistic portrayal of a young William learning to become a man, and the struggles and aspirations of the iconic playwright."

Around The Town Chicago - Highly Recommended

"...There is something thrilling about walking into a theatre knowing almost nothing about a production except its title and pedigree. That was my experience with Hamnet at the Chicago Shakespeare Theater, produced by the Royal Shakespeare Company. What I discovered over the next two and a half hours was not just a play, but a deeply moving portrait of love, grief, and the private life of William Shakespeare."

Chicago Theatre Review - Highly Recommended

"...Lolita Chakrabarti's excellent adaptation of Maggie O'Farrell's enthralling historical novel contains just enough of the original book to be both entertaining and enlightening. In the competent hands of talented director Erica Whyman, the two-and-a half-hour production, with intermission, both dazzles and delights. The Royal Shakespeare Company cast is impeccable, ingenious and makes O'Farrell story come alive with so much depth and feeling. If you're a Shakespeare fan, or you just enjoy a magical story, this historical family portrait of love and loss is a masterful, memorable production that should definitely not be missed."

Buzz Center Stage - Somewhat Recommended

"...And for a play about Shakespeare, why did we hear so little from the subject's original work? The excellence of "Shakespeare in Love" was the celebration and display of many slices from his actual writing that advanced the case for its explanation of the origins of "Romeo & Juliet." In this Royal Shakespeare company's "Hamnet," we're given just a tiny bit at the end, as Agnes witnesses the play for the first time, a scene meant to tie up and resolve all the loose ends. They loved this in London's West End, but in Chicago it's just not enough. See if you agree."

The Fourth Walsh - Recommended

"...Agnes is a free spirit. William is a Latin tutor. They fall in love, get married and have a family. Author Maggie O'Farrell imagines the woman left behind in Stratford as the playwright pursued an extraordinary fate in London. Who was Mrs. Shakespeare? What was her influence on The Bard's legendary works. O'Farrell wrote the best-selling novel that became an Oscar-nominated movie and now is adapted for stage by Lolita Chakrabarti."

Third Coast Review - Highly Recommended

"...You may appreciate the play Hamnet because you loved Maggie O'Farrell's 2020 novel or the 2025 film directed by Chloe Zhao. In either case, your view of the Hamnet story will be refreshed when you see the Royal Shakespeare Company version now on stage at Chicago Shakespeare Theater. Erica Whyman directs this stunning and evocative production, adapted for the stage by Lolita Chakrabarti. I admit I am sometimes impatient at plays that run more than two hours, but I was enthralled throughout every moment of Hamnet's 2.5 hours."

Chicago On Stage - Highly Recommended

"...It's rare for a book and its film and theatre adaptations to occur in such proximity to each other, and even more rare to have this extraordinary traveling production at the same time as the Oscar-nominated movie. Little is truly known about Shakespeare's home life, but this version feels much more likely to be true than the old misogynistic theory that Agnes was a termagant, combative woman from whom he needed to escape. Now I need to see the movie and read the novel."

PicksInSix - Highly Recommended

"...The captivating play imagines the courtship, marriage and family life of William Shakespeare (Rory Alexander) and Agnes Hathaway (Kemi-Bo Jacobs) and provides a fascinating fictional portrait of how Shakespeare’s plays may have been influenced by their time together and the tragic death of their young son Hamnet (Ajani Cabey)."

Chicago Culture Authority - Highly Recommended

"...It’s a truly stellar ensemble, expertly directed by Erica Whyman, part of a woman-led creative team that delivers the dramatic goods while underscoring both the terrible risks and terrific rewards that attend a mother’s unconditional love."

Splash Magazine - Recommended

"...The Royal Shakespeare Company and Neal Street Productions are currently presenting Maggie O'Farrell's Hamnet adapted by Lolita Chakrabarti, directed by Erica Whyman, through March 8, 2026, at Chicago Shakespeare Theater at The Yard on Navy Pier, Chicago. The play had fine production values, with clever, engaging music and Tom Piper's intriguing set made all of wood, long planks crafting lofts, separating rooms, holding up the ceiling. The costumes were quaint and expressive of their place and time- Warwickshire, England, and London- circa late 1500's. As you would expect from a company of this caliber, the acting was engaging, persuasive whether sweet flirting words of lovemaking, angry shouts of exasperated elder family members, or the happy shared exchanges of children."

Allie and the After Party - Recommended

"...Painting a new picture of William Shakespeare and Anne Hathaway, Hamnet shows us a version of Will and Agnes as a couple bound by love for each other and their family. It shows their life together, including the tragedy that may have loosely inspired Shakespeare’s Hamlet."

BroadwayWorld - Recommended

"...Fans of the novel will find much to appreciate. I prefer more action and plot in my theater, however, so I thought this was slow-moving. Though the play is more concise than O’Farrell’s novel, I think the two hour and 30 minute run-time could benefit from a 20 minute or so trim."

NewCity Chicago - Highly Recommended

"...One of the beauties of this production is how well it captures the reality of late sixteenth- and early seventeenth-century British life as lived by common people. This isn’t the court of Queen Elizabeth, but country life in Stratford. The costumes by Tom Piper are plain and historically accurate, with brown skirts and linen caps—no ruffs or bright colors. The set is all rough wooden beams and platforms, reminiscent of the Globe Theatre. An attic bedroom is formed by two ladders meeting over a platform, making the letter “A” as in “Avon.”"