Upstart Crow without the jokes: RSC’s Hamnet, at the Swan Theatre, reviewed

The Swan Theatre has reopened after an overhaul and praise god: they’ve replaced the seats. The Swan is a likeable theatre; the only space in the Royal Shakespeare Company’s portfolio that still conveys a real sense of history, though until 2020 that came at the price of acute posterior discomfort. No more: and we can get on with enjoying the inaugural production, an adaptation by Lolita Chakrabarti of Maggie O’Farrell’s Shakespeare novel Hamnet. It’s a nice fit, and after the RSC’s success with Wolf Hall you can see the logic. It’s Shakespearean without too much of that difficult Shakespeare, plus you get the built-in audience that comes with an award-winning novel.

If you’ve read the book, you’ll recognise the opening image in Erica Whyman’s production – a table of apples – but even if you haven’t, the Swan naturally suggests the 16th century. Meanwhile bees hum, birds sing and the countryside around Stratford seeps in through the theatre walls.