Hamnet

de Dead Centre Staff

William Shakespeare had one son. He named him Hamnet. Shakespeare 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. Hamnet must be shielded from the secret of adulthood: that we don't know what we're doing.