Hamnet (2025)

It’s been a long while since a film has cut me to the quick. In my teens, I watched “Romeo and Juliet” from the point-of-view of young love. Even “All Is True” a few years back helped me understand Will and Anne as an elderly couple at the end of their lives. “Hamnet” took me to a place that squarely shows what losing a child might mean for a parent. I cried.

Up until now, I have never understood why Shakespeare lived in London, while his wife and family lived in Stratford. Health of your children can be a great motivator. I did much the same with my second marriage, living in and around Ascot, while my family lived in Torquay. But three years of commuting on weekends was enough. I’m not sure I could have lived apart from them for years and years.

“Hamlet” is a powerful tragedy. On its own, it evokes what happens when a father is murdered, and then replaced by, a new stepfather. But Hamlet’s madness was not totally understandable, until you place its creation and production in the context of the aftermath of Hamnet’s death. Shakespeare was attempting to seek forgiveness for not being there when his son died. Hamlet, in this production, was the image of what Hamnet would have looked like had he survived. Agnes saw that right away when she and her brother, Bartholomew, attended the first showing of the play. Her grief was resolved by the end.

“The rest is silence.”