Hamnet   
Garrick Theatre, London   

   
WHATEVER the merits of the book on which this play is based, it fails to successfully transfer to the stage – at least in this flat formulation.    
   
Lolita Chakrabarti’s adaptation of Maggie O’Farrell’s novel about the family life of William Shakespeare shapes up as if it’s going to deliver something profound, yet quickly descends into shallow soap opera.    
   
With its Midlands accents, clunky intrigues and incessant, creaky scene changes, Hamnet turns out to be little more than a two-act Elizabethan version of Crossroads, despite its advertised pretensions as a serious consideration of ‘passion, birth, grief and the magic of nature’.   
   
Unfocused throughout, it has no coherent thread or theme, and certainly no tension.    
   
As Shakespeare (Tom Varey) and Anne Hathaway (Madeleine Mantock) fall for each other in a Warwickshire forest, there’s an initial suggestion that we’ll be in for an intriguing tale of a strong woman whose powers of insight and intuition are every bit as impressive as the literary gifts of her future husband.   
   
Yet it’s not long before that line of inquiry peters out. After the first quarter of an hour most of the rest of the action is a race to the finish, with no particular end in sight.   
   
That the play should be so directionless is particularly surprising given that there’s such a powerful event at its heart. It’s quite amazing that a story with so much drama can be so undramatic.   
   
For this we must absolve from blame the solid RSC cast. While the actors strive as hard as they can, too often there’s just not enough of substance for them to run with.    
   
Mantock, for instance, becomes increasingly at sea after a strong start, as the true nature of Anne’s character becomes more and more difficult to understand. Varey, too, begins to drift in the later stages as Will is required to be distant and distracted one minute, fiercely engaged the next.   
   
Some of the difficulties possibly stem from a fiddling about with the order and emphasis of O’Farrell’s 2020 novel, but the real issue is that the play doesn’t have enough depth to sustain itself.    
   
Whether the Hamnet story is simply unsuited to theatrical treatment or Chakrabarti has failed to make the most of it, the result is a sore disappointment.   
   
Runs until February 17 2024. Box office: 0330 333 4811, thegarricktheatre.co.uk