Historical tragedy film Hamnet is out now in theatres.
Based on the 2020 namesake novel by Maggie
O’Farrell, the movie dramatises the family life of William Shakespeare (Paul
Mescal) and his wife Agnes Hathaway (Jessie Buckley) as they cope with the
death of their 11-year-old son Hamnet (Jacobi Jupe).
It is based on the playwright’s real life,
who had his only son – twin brother to his daughter Judith – die due to
uncertain circumstances in the summer of 1596.
“There’s many things that are remarkable
about both Agnes and Will, but the main thing to me was that they still managed
to find a way back to each other,” Paul said in an interview.
“And that’s what kind of breaks my heart.
That’s always something that happens in a far away land. And to other people.
And unfortunately there’s a percentage of people in the world where it happens
to them,” he added.
There is a theory that Shakespeare’s grief
inspired him to write his famous tragedy play Hamlet due to the similarity in
names of the protagonist and his son. However, many scholars rejected the idea.
“I have been fascinated by Hamnet ever
since I first studied Hamlet at school. I was always baffled and saddened by
how little mention he receives in biographies and literary criticism, so I
decided to write a novel about him, to attempt to give him a voice and a
presence,” Maggie noted.
