Kemi-Bo Jacobs and Rory Alexander Photo by Kyle Flubacker

The first moments of the play, which is based on the novel by Maggie O'Farrell, take us immediately into the world of spirits, with the sounds of disembodied voices echoing through the theater's powerful sound system, followed by the appearance on stage of Agnes (Kemi-Bo Jacobs), twirling her lure to attract the kestrel she keeps to hunt with. In addition to the bird, her activities attract the young (not quite 18) Shakespeare, who makes his intentions known through gentle, but physical, force and disrespect of personal boundaries. This approach may have been common in Tudor England, but my initial reaction was "why would this woman submit to this, or further pursue this man?" (Though Agnes does scold Will for taking an apple of hers from a neatly arranged array on a table which she keeps apart by a specific distance, telling him "Distance is important. You'd do well to remember that.")

The first act continues the tale of the romance between Will and Agnes, concentrating on the home life that produced these two powerful characters, with Will's father John (Nigel Barrett), a glover and strict authoritarian, and mother Mary (Penny Layden), and Agnes's guardians, the vituperous Joan (Nicki Hobday), who married Agnes's father after the death of her mother. John blusters along, regularly scolding his son for sloth, but it's Joan who is the least loving parental unit, constantly reminding Agnes (who is 26 at the start of the show) how generous she has been to her–though strong-willed Agnes is not afraid to snap back that the home is, in fact, hers.

Agnes is soon pregnant with their first child, Susanna (Ava Hinds-Jones in act two, a bundle of cloth in act one), and Will and Agnes are wed soon after. Two years later, Agnes gives birth to twins, Judith (Saffron Dey) and Hamnet (Ajani Cabey), after which Will quickly decamps to London to sell his father's gloves, but soon becomes an actor and writer.

Though titled Hamnet, the play truly centers around Agnes, who, in addition to her alleged extrasensory abilities, is also a healer, tending herbs and making poultices when her children fall ill. Given that ACT's website introduces the play by saying "When the plague steals 11-year-old Hamnet from his loving parents..." it's not much of a spoiler to reveal the boy dies midway through Act Two. This is a consequence that clearly devastates Agnes, but doesn't seem to sway her belief in her spiritual/healing powers. When the boy is suffering, she moans about the ineffectiveness of the onions she boiled in milk to cure him. "It isn't working," she wails. "Why isn't it working?"

I had a rather similar feeling: why isn't this play moving me the way I expected it might? Why do I feel disconnected from these characters' trials and joys? It couldn't be the performances, which are clearly heartfelt and professional. I loved Nicki Hobday's sneering, dismissive attitude, and the way she seems to relish playing a bit of a villain. Nigel Barrett is a bearish man who is delightfully self-impressed as Will's father–and even more delightfully self-impressed (but in a very different way) as Will Kempe, one of the actors in the Lord Chamberlain's Men. As Will, Rory Alexander exhibits the confidence and flair one would expect from a man of genius–and shows his commitment to his work when Kempe adds a word or two to one of Shakespeare's lines, causing the Bard to explode in anger at the ruination of his carefully constructed meter.

It likely wasn't the staging that bothered me, with a grand set by Tom Piper (who also created the costumes), the direction by Erica Whyman, or any technical aspect of the play.

All that said, I suppose the reason I was left a little cold by Hamnet is the regularity of references to Agnes's supposed connections to a world beyond what we can see, hear, and feel. Perhaps ghost stories just aren't my thing, but if you don't mind the forays into what humans can't see, hear or feel, Hamnet is a powerful, beautifully staged production that gives an interesting, if imagined, account of what perhaps motivated the Bard to write the most famous of his plays.

Hamnet plays through May 24, 2026, at American Conservatory Theater, Toni Rembe Theater, 415 Geary Street, San Francisco CA. Performance times vary. Tickets range from $25-$140, plus fees. For tickets and information, please visit www.act-sf.org.