Following a highly successful run in Stratford-Upon-Avon, the acclaimed British Indian playwright Lolita Chakrabarti's adaptation of Maggie O'Farrell's 'Hamnet' is poised for its West End debut at the end of this month.
After shattering box office records at the Royal Shakespeare Company's Swan Theatre and generating significant buzz, the play is set to open at the Garrick Theatre in London, backed by one of the largest advances for any production.
The demand has been so remarkable that the RSC, Neal Street Productions, and Hera Pictures have jointly announced an extension of the West End run, with bookings available until mid-February 2024.
Speaking to Asian Voice, Ms Chakrabarti talks about the inspiration, complexities and insights of the play.
What inspired you to take on and adapt a deeply emotional and complex novel like “Hamnet”? What aspects the story resonated with you personally?
I have been involved with Shakespeare’s plays since I was a teenager, watching them at school and studying them. I continued to watch and then when I graduated from RADA I played many roles in different productions - Rosalind, Goneril, Olivia, Gertrude, Titania, Hippolyte. Reading Maggie’s novel gave me a glimpse of the family behind the great man and their significant influence on his life and work. With the possibility of looking at William and Agnes and recreating them I couldn’t say no.
A lot of this play resonates with me. This is about motherhood, family, births, deaths and marriages, acting, writing, intuition and so much more. It’s a universal story really so I think everyone would be able to see something of themselves within it.
How do you approach the creative process of adapting a novel into a different medium?
I work very instinctively. I read and reread the source material and break it down into subsections and ideas. I look at which characters are essential and which supporting roles I like. I always want to see more women and so that informs my choices. Then I build these elements around the central story.
What are some changes that you’ve made to your adaptation while preserving the essence of the original?
In the novel, William is a background character who is never named and the focus of the story is Agnes. The play is led by Agnes but William is also very present. I chose to look at who these two young people were when they met and their effect on each other. How they made their children, their hopes and dreams and frustrations in life come true and how they coped with tragedy.
Could you share any insights into the collaborative process with other members of the production team?
Everyone in the room is crucial in helping to tell the story that I have written. I am very aware that the director, in this case Erica Whyman, is the maestro. Every element of it must go through her. So she and I talked and worked and developed a dialogue early on. She will feed me requests from other members of the team and then I can respond and I talk directly to the actors to try to demystify some of my choices. Sometimes the questions they ask make me change the script. I like collaboration very much.
How did you approach the research process to authentically capture a historical time and place in your adaptation?
I had a few days in London with Professor Farah Karim Cooper from The Globe who was my chosen Shakespearean expert and advisor. She talked me through his life and details about society at that time. Then I also spent a few days in Stratford visiting Shakespeare's house, school, pub and Anne Hathaway's former home. It was invaluable walking around his and her streets. I also found an Elizabethan dictionary that gave me some helpful phrases and words to pepper my script to make the script sound more authentic. I also have a reasonable knowledge of Shakespeare’s plays and that helped me because I have used many elements and ideas from his plays in mine.
Can you discuss the casting and character development process? How do you work with the actors to bring their roles to life?
Amy Ball is our casting director. She read the script, talked to Erica and we met actors who all offer very different elements for each role. Actors are extraordinary and no two actors are alike. It’s a thorough and fascinating process. The actors who are cast in the play, work on the script, ask questions and work with each other to find out why they make the choices they make and how that affects their choices. Hopefully the answers are in the script and if they’re not, I put them in!
Were there any specific scenes or moments from the novel that you found particularly challenging or rewarding to adapt?
I found the final scene at The Globe very challenging. In the book it is moving but mysterious and the internal logic isn’t totally clear to me, that is the beauty of it. In a novel that’s great, in a play it’s not. So, I found it challenging to work out a logic for Agnes’ experience of watching Hamlet which becomes a reason to provoke the ‘ghost’ of Hamnet to appear.
I found the scenes of the actors at The Globe great fun to write, as well as the family scene of all the children with their mother being boisterous and chaotic. I know these situations all too well.
