First look revealed for Lolita Chakrabarti’s adaptation of ‘Hamnet’ at Garrick Theatre

After a sell-out world premiere at Stratford-Upon-Avon, the well-received play Hamnet is currently enjoying its West End run.

Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) and Neal Street Productions in association with Hera Pictures on Friday unveiled new images for the West End transfer of Hamnet, which is described as a love letter to passion, birth, grief, and the magic of nature.

Award-winning British Indian playwright Lolita Chakrabarti has adapted Maggie O’Farrell’s bestselling novel Hamnet for the stage. It has Erica Whyman attached as director.

Hamnet, a story inspired by the son of the renowned 16th-century playwright and poet William Shakespeare, has sold over 1.5 million copies worldwide and was named both Waterstones Book of the Year and winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award in 2020.

The novel also saw O’Farrell named the winner of the 2020 Women’s Prize for Fiction, the UK's most prestigious annual book award celebrating and honouring fiction written by women.

The play boasts of an impressive cast, which includes Sarah Belcher (Joan), Gabriel Akuwudike (Bartholomew), Will Brown (Burbage/Father John), Phoebe Campbell (Susanna), Ajani Cabey (Hamnet/Thomas Day), Mhairi Gayer (Tilly/Caterina/Landlady), Frankie Hastings (Eliza), Karl Haynes (Ned/Physician/Condell), Alex Jarrett (Judith), Madeleine Mantock (Agnes Hathaway), Hannah McPake (Jude/Physician’s Wife), Liza Sadovy (Mary), Tom Varey (William Shakespeare) and Peter Wight (John/Will Kempe).

The play will open to one of the biggest advances of any production at the Garrick Theatre in London. As per reports, a limited number of day seats will be available for every performance at £25.

Hamnet has already been optioned by Hera Pictures, with a film in development with Neal Street Productions. Maggie O’Farrell and Chloe Zhao are writing the screenplay.