One of the major players this awards season is the beautifully crafted, deeply affecting adaptation of Hamnet. Chloé Zhao’s film version of Maggie O’Farrell’s bestselling novel stars Paul Mescal as Shakespeare and Jessie Buckley as his wife Agnes, following the couple through their initial courtship, early marriage, and a devastating loss.

Hamnet has also been brilliantly adapted into a stage show, and its lead cast, of course, have impressive stage pedigree of their own. Find out more about the real history that Hamnet draws upon, as well as the tale’s various forms, and the Shakespeare productions you can see in London now.

Spoilers follow for Hamnet

Is Hamnet based on a true story?

Parts of Hamnet are certainly true. Just like in the story, William Shakespeare was born to a glove-maker in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, and was likely well-educated. At the age of 18, he married 26-year-old Anne Hathaway (she was sometimes referred to as “Agnes”, and that’s the name the character has in O’Farrell’s version). Hathaway was the daughter of a yeoman farmer.

The couple had three children: Susanna, who was born in 1583, and twins Hamnet and Judith, in 1585. Tragically, Hamnet died aged 11, in 1596. His cause of death was not recorded, but historians have speculated that he may have died of the bubonic plague, since there were frequent terrible outbreaks.

It is also known that Shakespeare began spending much of his time in London as his career took off. Many of his early plays were believed to have been written in the late 1580s and 1590s, such as The Two Gentlemen of Verona, Richard III, The Comedy of Errors, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Romeo and Juliet, and Hamlet.

Other elements of Hamnet are more speculative, particularly the idea that Shakespeare poured his grief, pain and love into a play in which his similarly named protagonist is profoundly affected by a family bereavement: Hamlet. The extraordinary climactic scene of the movie sees Agnes at the play’s premiere at the Globe Theatre.

The characterisation of Agnes is another imaginative leap, since there is little recorded detail of the real woman. In O’Farrell’s version, she is a mystic: deeply rooted in nature and its elemental power, a healer who understands the medicinal use of plants, and sometimes able to see the future.

The film also references Shakespearean characters, plots and tropes within the depiction of his family life, either as an interesting parallel for the viewer, or perhaps suggesting that he took inspiration from watching his children play – particularly his twins, Hamnet and Judith, since twins are fundamental to the likes of Twelfth Night.

From page to stage

The novel Hamnet was published in 2020 and soon became a phenomenon: by 2024, it had sold more than two million copies and been translated into 40 languages. O’Farrell won the Women’s Prize for Fiction and the National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction, and Waterstones chose Hamnet as their Book of the Year.

In 2023, Hamnet was brought to the stage by the Royal Shakespeare Company, adapted by actress and playwright Lolita Chakrabarti. The play premiered at the RSC’s Swan Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon, bringing the story home. Erica Whyman directed and the show starred Madeleine Mantock as Agnes and Tom Varey as Shakespeare.

The stage version expanded on Shakespeare’s early-career experiences, alongside the family drama, bringing in characters like his players: Richard Burbage, Henry Condell, and William Kempe. It also had the advantage of being able to end on a speech from Hamlet, so audiences could experience live that alchemy of communicating feeling through theatre.

Hamnet transferred to the West End later in 2023, playing at London’s Garrick Theatre, with the lead cast reprising their roles. In a review for LondonTheatre.co.uk, our critic said: "Maggie O’Farrell’s novel leaps between time periods and has an intimate interiority, so Lolita Chakrabarti does impressive work to find a new framing for the tale, while honouring O’Farrell’s determination to centre Shakespeare’s wife Agnes and his children. This is a fascinating origin story for the Bard, but it’s as much Agnes’s story – perhaps even more so."

The play makes its American premiere in February 2026 at the Chicago Shakespeare Theater, starring Kemi-Bo Jacobs and Rory Alexander.

The Hamnet stars are steeped in theatre

There is plenty of crossover between the Hamnet movie and theatre. The film stars Jessie Buckley as Agnes, who has already won a Golden Globe and is hotly tipped to add a Bafta and an Oscar to her growing haul (the film is nominated for eight Academy Awards altogether).

Buckley has an established film and TV career, appearing in movies such as Wild Rose, Judy, I’m Thinking of Ending Things, The Lost Daughter, Women Talking, and the upcoming The Bride!, and TV shows War & Peace, Chernobyl, and Fargo.

However, she is also an acclaimed theatre actress. She played Anne Egerman in Sondheim musical A Little Night Music at the Menier Chocolate Factory, starred as Miranda in The Tempest and Kate in Gabriel at Shakespeare’s Globe, then played Katharine opposite Jude Law in Henry V and Perdita in a production of The Winter’s Tale led by Kenneth Branagh and Judi Dench.

In 2021, Buckley starred as Sally Bowles, alongside Eddie Redmayne, in Rebecca Frecknall’s electrifying West End revival of musical Cabaret – which is still going strong at the Playhouse Theatre, aka the Kit Kat Club. Buckley won an Olivier Award for her performance.

Her Hamnet co-star Paul Mescal has also mixed stage and screen in his career. Mescal became a household name thanks to TV drama Normal People, and has since led films such as Aftersun, All of Us Strangers, and Gladiator II. He also plays Paul McCartney in the upcoming Beatles movies and stars as Franklin Shepherd in the film version of Sondheim’s Merrily We Roll Along.

But, like Buckley, he is a thrilling theatre actor too. Mescal got his start in The Great Gatsby at Dublin’s Gate Theatre, and was unforgettable in his Olivier-winning turn as Stanley Kowalski in Frecknall’s revival of A Streetcar Named Desire. The production opened at London’s Almeida Theatre in 2022 and went on to play in the West End and Off Broadway. Mescal is returning to theatre in 2027, starring in A Whistle in the Dark and Death of a Salesman at the National Theatre.

Noah Jupe plays Hamlet in the crucial final scene of Hamnet – creating an affecting parallel with the young title character, who is played by his younger brother Jacobi. Jupe has appeared in other films such as A Quiet Place, and in TV shows like The Night Manager, but he is now continuing his Shakespeare journey by starring in the exciting Romeo & Juliet, alongside Stranger Things actress Sadie Sink, coming to the West End soon.

Check out some of the best Shakespeare productions that you can see in London following your Hamnet trip!

Main photo credit: Jessie Buckley in Hamnet (Photo courtesy of the movie). Inset: Jessie Buckley and Paul Mescal in Hamnet, Tom Varey and Madeleine Mantock in Hamnet, Eddie Redmayne and Jessie Buckley in Cabaret (Photo courtesy of the movie, photos by Manuel Harlan, Marc Brenner)