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Click here for the September – October 2017 run of Hamnet.

“Grief fills the room up of my absent child” – King John, Act III, Scene IV

William Shakespeare had one son. He named him Hamnet. He then left home to pursue his career in the theatre, effectively abandoning his family. In 1596, he was told that the boy – who was then eleven years old – was seriously ill. By the time Shakespeare reached Stratford, Hamnet had died.

In 1599, Shakespeare wrote a play called Hamlet.

Hamnet is too young to understand Shakespeare. And he is one letter away from being a great man. We are too old to understand Hamnet. How close are we to greatness? We meet in the middle, in a theatre, in purgatory: youth reaching forward to a life it will never know, an audience reaching back to a life it has forgotten.

From the makers of the Irish Times Award winning LIPPY (Irish Times Theatre Award for Best Production) and the multi-award winning Chekhov’s First Play (Irish Times Theatre Award for Best Sound Design), Hamnet is a solo work for an eleven year old boy. Using live video and dead video, Dead Centre attempt to bridge the gap between two generations.

Hamnet is a Dead Centre and Abbey Theatre co-production