Lolita Chakrabarti on Adapting Hamnet for the Stage

Folger Shakespeare Library: Shakespeare Unlimited

Folger Shakespeare Library

Arts

4.7 • 837 Ratings

🗓️ 25 April 2023

⏱️ 36 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Lolita Chakrabarti is the playwright of Red Velvet, about 19th-century Black actor Ira Aldridge, and has adapted Italo Calvino's Invisible Cities and Yann Martel's The Life of Pi for the stage. Now, she has adapted Maggie O'Farrell's bestselling novel Hamnet for the stage. Hamnet is currently playing at the Royal Shakespeare Company's Swan Theatre. The play tells the story of a young Agnes Hathaway and William Shakespeare as they fall in love and start a family, and the psychological damage caused by the death of their son, Hamnet. Barbara Bogaev talks with Chakrabarti about adapting O'Farrell's story, how she portrays the Shakespeare family, and her earlier play Red Velvet. Hamnet is onstage at the Royal Shakespeare Company’s newly restored Swan Theatre until June 17 and will open at London’s Garrick Theatre on September 30. From the Folger’s Shakespeare Unlimited podcast. Published April 25, 2023. © Folger Shakespeare Library. All rights reserved. This episode was produced by Matt Frassica. Garland Scott is the associate producer. It was edited by Gail Kern Paster. Ben Lauer is the web producer, with help from Leonor Fernandez. We had technical help from Melvin Rickarby in Stratford and Voice Trax West in Studio City, California. Final mixing services provided by Clean Cuts at Three Seas, Inc.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Maggie O'Farrell's novel, Hamnet, offered a fictionalized backstory for the play Hamlet.
0:06.0	Now, Hamnet itself has been turned into a play.
0:10.2	You got all that?
0:17.1	From the Folger Shakespeare Library, this is Shakespeare Unlimited. I'm Michael Whitmore, the
0:22.5	Fulger director. In her career as an actor, Lolita Chakrabartis appeared in numerous TV and film
0:29.0	roles, including the long-running British police show, The Bill. Her stage credits include
0:34.4	playing Gertrude in a 2017 production of Hamlet directed by Kenneth Branagh.
0:40.9	Chakrabarty is also the author of several plays, including the award-winning Red Velvet,
0:46.4	about the 19th century Shakespearean actor Ira Aldrich.
0:51.0	Chakrabarty has recently made a name as an adapter, having brought the novel's Invisible Cities and Life of Pie to the stage.
0:59.3	Now Chakrabarty has adapted Maggie O'Farrell's 2020 novel, Hamnet.
1:04.4	The novel and Chakrabarty's play tell the story of a young Agnes Hathaway and William Shakespeare as they fall in love and start a family.
1:15.2	Anne, Anne.
1:17.9	That's not my name.
1:20.1	You said it was?
1:21.0	You weren't listening.
1:21.9	Tell me again.
1:23.2	I'm Agnes.
1:25.2	Anius Hathaway.
1:27.2	And the psychological damage caused by the death of their son, Hamnet.
1:32.7	The play stars Madeline Mantock as Ayes and Tom Barry as William.
1:39.1	It's directed by the Royal Shakespeare Company's acting artistic director, Erica Wyman.
	...

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