In the fall of 2024, the Royal Shakespeare Company brought Pericles to Chicago Shakespeare Theater, marking a triumphant return after a 30-year absence. Less than two years later, the RSC is back to launch a national tour of Hamnet thanks to a renewed partnership under Chicago Shakes artistic director Edward Hall, son of RSC founder Sir Peter Hall.
This is cause for celebration among the city’s theater lovers. We are indeed fortunate to see this storied company performing a play about Shakespeare’s life adapted by Lolita Chakrabarti (who wrote the wonderful Hymn that played at Shakes last year) from a novel by Maggie O’Farrell.
Let me amend that last statement for the record: Though William Shakespeare is integral to the story, one that only exists because he became history’s most celebrated playwright, the spotlight here belongs to his wife, Agnes Shakespeare.
This is a story that centers fierce maternal love and the indescribable anguish of losing a child. Kemi-Bo Jacobs inhabits Agnes fully, sustaining an intense performance of such raw emotional power that one begins to worry about the toll it might take on her. This, folks, is acting with a capital everything.
Her fine work is ably supported by a cast that includes standout turns by Rory Alexander, who quite possibly was born to play the young playwright; larger-than-life Nigel Barrett, who impresses as both William’s abusive father and a hammy member of Shakespeare’s theater troupe prone to improvising his own lines; Bert Seymour as the stalwart Richard Burbage, first to star in the role of Hamlet; Nicki Hobday as Agnes’ execrable stepmom, Joan; Troy Alexander as Agnes’ calm giant of a brother, Bartholomew; and joyous, impish, delightful Ajani Cabey as Hamnet, beloved son of Agnes and William and doting brother to Judith (Saffron Dey) and Susanna (Ava Hinds-Jones).
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.
As with Pericles, Friday’s opening of Hamnet in The Yard elicited such a sustained ovation that it required two curtain calls to satisfy. Long may this partnership flourish.
Hamnet runs through March 8 at Chicago Shakespeare Theater.
For a full roundup of reviews of this show, visit Theatre in Chicago.
Photo by Kyle Flubacker.
