‘Hamnet’ Play From Royal Shakespeare Company Sets First U.K. Tour

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The Royal Shakespeare Company‘s stage version of “Hamnet,” Lolita Chakrabarti’s adaptation of Maggie O’Farrell’s novel about William Shakespeare’s family and the death of his 11-year-old son, will tour the U.K. for the first time starting in September 2027.

Fiery Angel and Neal Street Productions are presenting the RSC production, which previously played London’s West End. The tour will open Sept. 25, 2027, at Lowry in Salford, England. It will then move on to Newcastle, Truro, Norwich, Nottingham, Canterbury, Birmingham, Glasgow and Bath before pausing for Christmas.

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According to the producers, performances will pick up again in 2028 with dates in Belfast, York, Wimbledon and Southampton. More dates will be added later. Casting and the rest of the creative team have yet to be announced.

Erica Whyman, the RSC’s former deputy and acting artistic director, directs, with sets by Tom Piper. The play opened at the company’s Swan Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon in 2023 and set box office records there. Later that year it moved to the Garrick Theatre in the West End, opening with the biggest advance the venue had seen up to that point. Whyman has also taken the production on a U.S. tour.

The story begins in Warwickshire in 1582, when Agnes Hathaway, a healer, meets William Shakespeare, who is working as a Latin tutor. The two build a life and a family together. After the plague kills their son Hamnet, each parent is left to grieve alone.

O’Farrell’s novel won the Women’s Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award. It has since become an Oscar-winning film, which Neal Street also produced.

“It’s wonderful to know that the RSC/Neal Street production of ‘Hamnet’ is embarking on a tour of the U.K.,” O’Farrell said. “The production goes from strength to strength and it’s lovely that more people will get to see it.”

Chakrabarti’s earlier stage adaptation of Yann Martel’s “Life of Pi” won the Olivier Award for best new play. It reached Broadway in March 2023 and picked up five Tony nominations there. Her debut play, “Red Velvet,” began at London’s Tricycle Theatre before runs in New York and the West End.

Chakrabarti said she had felt keenly the weight of making the historical figures relatable and bringing them back to life. “William Shakespeare’s reach is beyond compare and everyone without exception has some knowledge of his life, his works, his stories and his language,” she said. “To try and humanize a man of such reach is a humbling thing. But in the end, this is a story about family – an eleven year old boy and the people around him.”

Whyman has previously run Southwark Playhouse, the Gate Theatre in London and Northern Stage in Newcastle. She called Chakrabarti’s script deft, funny and highly accessible. “It is a love story with a remarkable woman and her family at its heart, but it is also a love letter to the theater, to Shakespeare and the miraculous capacity of the human imagination,” she said. “I have spent my career advocating for U.K. touring so I’m especially pleased to be working with Fiery Angel and Neal Street so that we can share this production with so many new audiences all over the country.”

The tour schedule is as follows:

The Lowry, Salford: Sept. 25–Oct. 2, 2027
Theatre Royal Newcastle: Oct. 5–9, 2027
Hall for Cornwall, Truro: Oct. 12–16, 2027
Norwich Theatre Royal: Oct. 19–23, 2027
Theatre Royal Nottingham: Oct. 26–30, 2027
Marlowe Theatre, Canterbury: Nov. 2–6, 2027
The Alexandra, Birmingham: Nov. 9–13, 2027
Theatre Royal Glasgow: Nov. 16–20, 2027
Theatre Royal Bath: Nov. 23–27, 2027
Grand Opera House, Belfast: Jan. 18–22, 2028
Grand Opera House, York: Feb. 1–5, 2028
New Wimbledon Theatre, London: March 7–11, 2028
Mayflower Theatre, Southampton: March 21–25, 2028

Neal Street is a Banijay Entertainment company founded in 2003 by Sam Mendes, Pippa Harris and Caro Newling. On stage it also originated “The Lehman Trilogy” and “The Hills of California.” On the film side, it is in production on Mendes’ Beatles project for Sony Pictures, which is made up of four separate theatrical features.