veryone knows the story of Hamlet. But few know the inspiration. Shakespeare had three children with his wife Anne Hathaway. The eldest, a girl named Susanna. The later two, twins, named Judith and Hamnet. In the summer of 1596, Hamnet died tragically at the age of eleven. In a fever of grief, four years later, Shakespeare bore the words of Hamlet. He flipped the script and told the story of a son haunted by the death of his father, all the while he was the father haunted by the death of his son. Maggie O\u2019Farrell fills in the blanks of that real story with her award-winning novel Hamnet. <\/p>\n
Now that story can be lived through thanks to the adaptation by Lolita Chakrabarti, the woman who most recently wrote the stage script for Life of Pi. It\u2019s being transferred to the West End after just four months in Stratford: Hamnet is a hit before opening night.<\/p>\n
A story told over a period of 20 years, the show has all the staples of a play written by the bard himself. There\u2019s mystery and magic, a forbidden love story, and a tragedy all too heavy to bear. But don\u2019t let the title fool you. Hamnet is its name, and Shakespeare walks the stage, but the spotlight falls on his wife, Agnes Hathaway. (A name change taken by creative liberties of O\u2019Farrell) <\/p>\n
The woman at the edge of the forest, Agnes has the ability to look at a person and see right through to their soul. She is played by Madeleine Mantock, a woman not unfamiliar with magical roles \u2013 most recently, a witch in the Charmed reboot. We sat down with the star of the show to discuss how she went from competitive disco dancing to taking centre stage in the theatrical event of the year. <\/p>\n
What made you want to perform? <\/strong>
\nWhere I grew up there was no theatre. Then a man called Jordi Guitart came to my dance school to do a dance masterclass. He had all this knowledge and all this essence; I wanted to be like him. I remember being told, \u201cYou don\u2019t really get to do it. It\u2019s too difficult, it\u2019s too competitive.\u201d I was like, \u201cWell, I will. Even if it was 10% or 5%, I will be part of the 5%.\u201d I\u2019ve kept that obnoxious drive since.<\/p>\nWhat happens next after this discovery? Do you find theatre or keep dancing?<\/strong>
\nIt was still only dancing at that point. I used to be a competitive freestyle disco dancer, which is quite niche. It\u2019s like if you brought Strictly Ballroom into this century. You are spray tanned within an inch of your life. Your hair is scraped onto your head, and you curl it so you have this poof there. You\u2019re wearing Swarovski crystals, crazy cat-eye makeup. You almost look like a peacock. You have this insane neon costume, which is bejewelled.<\/p>\nYou go to a regional leisure centre, and there are different judges placed around the room in a rectangle. There will be 20 of you in a heat, which is like a round, and you strut onto the floor and they play any random music and you just dance to it in a square. <\/p>\n
That\u2019s one heat. If you make it past that round, you do it again. By the final, you come on from the side doing tricks and flips and you dance forwards in a line. It\u2019s a whole day, it\u2019s a massive, massive industry. It\u2019s very niche but the BBC made a documentary about it.<\/p>\n
How do you make your way to ArtsEd?<\/strong>
\nIt wasn\u2019t easy. But I wasn\u2019t afraid to ask for help. When I was trying to get to school, I had to find a way to pay for it. When I was 18, school bills were ten and a half grand. At the time, regular university was three grand for a year. For a specialist course, that\u2019s the difference you needed to pay.<\/p>\nI was writing to people, I made my own kind of pamphlet. I ended up having seven or eight people who had given money to help me get onto my course. I used to write them update letters about what I was getting up to at school, and what we were doing. <\/p>\n
My school had quite a lot of opportunities to go and be a chorus for big events. We performed at the BBC Proms, we did a Sondheim birthday celebration. I used to tell the people helping me, \u201cI\u2019m really doing this. This is what your help is doing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Who were the people that ended up helping?<\/strong>
\nOne of them was a local councillor, Rod Kempster. I had written to him and asked for help. He was the person who said yes and signed the cheque. You have to build a personal connection with someone. You have to convince them that you can do this.<\/p>\nWhen I went to ArtsEd, and I saw the other students, I knew it was where I was meant to go. But I didn\u2019t get in. You\u2019re not allowed to re-apply in the same year; you\u2019re supposed to wait a year. But because I was so on it, I had auditioned first day of that cycle. So I wrote to them and said, \u2018Please, can I try again?\u2019<\/p>\n
You\u2019re a lady of letters\u2026<\/strong>
\nYes! They weren\u2019t sure my singing was strong enough. But I said to them, \u2018If you\u2019re supposed to be the best school for musical theatre then you should be able to teach me.\u2019 And then the head of music Dane Preece let me in! I was really tenacious. I really thought I was supposed to go there.
\n<\/p>\nHow was your experience?<\/strong>
\nIt was amazing. I was obsessed, absolutely obsessed. But it was hard on your body. I had an added element because I couldn\u2019t just be in school by 8am, finish by 6pm and go home and revise. I had to go to my job from 6pm until 11 and then order a Domino\u2019s, and start again.<\/p>\nWhen you were in school, what did you feel was your USP as a performer?<\/strong>
\nWe were told to find our USP in school. I had a real one and an empty one. My empty one was that I had big hair. If you look at the shows in the West End now, there\u2019s such an array of shows that allow black and ethnic minority performers to shine. At the time, we maybe had Hairspray or The Lion King. But I always felt that I was encouraged to step into that, as opposed to fading in or amalgamating and just being a chorus girl.<\/p>\nWhat I feel like was different about me was that I\u2019ve always looked for the connection. I\u2019ve always been looking for the place to drop in emotionally. Sometimes it would get me into trouble; they used to think I was disruptive. I was sent to a counsellor. At times, they didn\u2019t know what to do with me. That kind of training is to make us a really incredible chorus member or ensemble member. They almost want a conveyor belt of perfect machine performers. If you\u2019re doing something else, you\u2019re disrupting.<\/p>\n
Aren\u2019t they supposed to train you not just to be in the ensemble but be the star?<\/p>\n
I think they want to decide who those people are. I think they thought I was a shiny, leggy girl that could have a moment in a show.<\/p>\n
When does musical theatre become acting?<\/strong>
\nWe always had guest tutors. One was a woman named Ebony Molina and I was obsessed with her because she was kind of like me. She was really tall and had big hair. She was definitely a special dancer that had a moment in the show. She had a part in Crazy For You, and decided to leave that role to work with a different choreographer. One spot opened and I got to audition. And I got it. By some miracle because it was a tap show and I wasn\u2019t the strongest tapper. I got the job which meant I was allowed to get an agent early.<\/p>\nThree months before that job started they started sending me out for auditions. An audition came up for Casualty, they were casting two new nurses. I went and had no idea what I was doing. I was training to be a chorus girl. But I got it. I dropped out of Crazy For You, and left school. By that Friday, I had cleared out my locker and that was it.
\nMadeleine Mantock<\/p>\n
This is such a clean transition.<\/p>\n
It didn\u2019t feel like it in the moment. It felt like fighting to be seen, and fighting for that place. Then trying to get as much out of it as I could. I always had this thing where I was like, \u2018An opportunity will arise and I\u2019ll just go and do it.\u2019 There was a time when I started to go work abroad, and my mum would say to me, \u2018You\u2019re so brave,\u2019 almost to say, \u2018Are you sure you\u2019re going to go?\u2019 I\u2019m thinking, \u2018I have to go. I\u2019m going to do the job.\u2019 It didn\u2019t cross my mind. You get so many no\u2019s as an actor, that when there\u2019s a yes you just go and do it.<\/p>\n
Did you feel in any way out of your depth when you got the role for Casualty since you\u2019d been training for theatre all your life?<\/p>\n
No, but I learned that I was. Again, obnoxious hope. Our producer Oliver Kent said, \u2018I need you to still be reacting when you\u2019re not talking.\u2019 And I was like, \u2018What do you mean?\u2019 We were playing nurses so we\u2019re doing fake jiggery pokery. He said, \u2018I want to be able to cut to you even when you\u2019re not speaking, stay living in the scene.\u2019 So I did that.<\/p>\n
Casualty was like an extra year of drama school. I had to learn everything technical. I didn\u2019t understand why I had to be on my mark. I didn\u2019t understand the size of the frame, different lenses. I might be blocking someone\u2019s light. I didn\u2019t understand any of that screen craft. It was totally new to me.<\/p>\n
What was your introduction to Shakespeare?<\/strong>
\nMuch Ado About Nothing is the one that stays with me. I love words, and I really love poetry. I really liked being able to figure it out. I remember being in English and doing this persuasive writing module at school and something opened in my brain. I was like, \u2018This is how you use words. The word you pick matters. It can change something.\u2019 When you\u2019ve got something like Shakespeare, that\u2019s almost like holy text. To be able to find a window into that and unpick it excites me.
\n
\nWhy did you love Much Ado About Nothing?<\/strong>
\nI think it was the twists and turns. I found it riveting. Even now, on a tough day, the mantra that I say to myself is, \u2018Have patience and endure.\u2019 It\u2019s from that play \u2013 the priest says it to them when it\u2019s all gone wrong. The priest isn\u2019t really a huge character but that was such a gold nugget for me. I say it to myself all the time. I hang on to the words. <\/p>\nWhen does Hamnet come into your life?<\/strong>
\nIt would have been summer of 2022 that the audition came through. It was August. To be candid, I\u2019ve only done about three play auditions in my life. I remember the first one that I went to, I couldn\u2019t get my head over the concept that you read the script off the paper. I\u2019m used to learning it, wearing an appropriate suggestion to the character, doing my hair and makeup in a way that\u2019s presentable, and you look hot in. You go in and be it already. \u2018I\u2019m here, cast me.\u2019 Whereas with theatre, they don\u2019t care if you go in and you\u2019re dishevelled. They might even like it. They just want you to have a go.
\nMadeleine Mantock<\/p>\nDid you like that?<\/strong>
\nNo, because I\u2019m supposed to make choices and commit to that. I don\u2019t know how to prepare halfway. The only other play I\u2019d ever done, I think I only got because it was towards the end of Covid and I had to make a self tape for it. It was my medium, but for a play. That was Blithe Spirit, playing Elvira: a dead wife ghost.<\/p>\nWith Hamnet, I panicked. One of the scenes I\u2019d picked to read which is called \u2018Come Back to Bed\u2019 and it\u2019s the scene where Agnes and William have just been married and she tells him about her gift and what she sees and what death is. When I read that, I thought it was so incredible. It\u2019s one of those things you read and you go, \u2018Oh, I\u2019ll never be able to do this job. I\u2019ll just go in for the experience.\u2019<\/p>\n
On my way into the audition, I ripped that scene out and put it in my bag because I was like, \u2018I can\u2019t do that. It\u2019s too good. I can\u2019t read it off the paper in this audition. It will be too incomplete. I won\u2019t be able to do it any justice. It will feel too empty for me to bear.\u2019 <\/p>\n
When we got to that scene in the audition, I just finished speaking like it was the end of the scene. The director and casting director were staring at me. I confessed I didn\u2019t want to do it. I said, \u2018I\u2019m really sorry I didn\u2019t want to do that bit; it\u2019s in my bag by the door, I don\u2019t think I\u2019m going to do it justice. It needs more time. This is the first time we\u2019re meeting. I don\u2019t know if who I think she is is who you think she is.\u2019 They gave me a script and said we were going to do it again.<\/p>\n
So I gave it a go, but I was really mad at myself. Number one: unprofessional. Number two: not good enough. I gave up on my day. It was the opposite of that \u2018I won the day\u2019 feeling. But they called me back and asked me to do a workshop with Erica [Whyman] the director. I went back and we worked on other scenes, so it was like, \u2018Could you give birth to us for a second?\u2019 So yes, that\u2019s how that went.<\/p>\n
Did you know the story at all?<\/strong>
\nI\u2019d seen the cover of it. But my first meeting of the story was with Lolita Chakrabarti\u2019s adaptation. I knew I wasn\u2019t going to read it until I knew they liked me. I didn\u2019t want to fall in love with the book until I got the part.<\/p>\nDid you know anything about Shakespeare and Anne Hathaway before this show?<\/strong>
\nI knew about the second-best bed because of the poem by Carol Ann Duffy. My whole Shakespeare world was what we learned at school. But I knew nothing about his children. I didn\u2019t know anything about the historical fiction world that we\u2019re inhabiting.<\/p>\nWhat\u2019s been your favourite thing to learn?<\/strong>
\nI think the thing that shocked me the most was how much of a businessman Shakespeare was. We know his plays are prolific, but his wealth and presence had to do with the amount of land he owned. We went up to Stratford and houses everywhere. He was like an OG landlord. It wasn\u2019t like he was this mega star, that\u2019s what rocked my brain a bit. It\u2019s not that he left his family and went off to London. He never owned a place in London. Everything he earned he sent back home. I found that really beautiful, it\u2019s all still here.<\/p>\nWhat is it like to play a historical figure?<\/strong>
\nI know I am but I\u2019m not. Because I\u2019m playing Agnes, and for me, right now, she is alive. The woman in the tomb is different. I\u2019m playing an essence, but she is alive for me in my head.<\/p>\nWhy do you think you\u2019re always cast as people with magical powers?<\/strong>
\nI don\u2019t know! I get that a lot. I went through this phrase where I was like, \u2018I am so sick of being this heal-y person\u2019 but at the time it was people with no powers. Now, I\u2019ve gone into my power stage. I think it goes back to that emotional access I was talking about being in school. If I\u2019m given the opportunity to try and find that then people see it.<\/p>\nI\u2019ve had periods in my career, and maybe it\u2019s because I\u2019ve done a lot of glossy American TV, but it\u2019s almost like they can\u2019t see past that. Sometimes people say to me that they can\u2019t imagine I\u2019ve had a difficult past, or would not be OK. They see you as this shiny person who doesn\u2019t feel. If people get past that visual barrier, they see who I am as a person.<\/p>\n
What has been the most exciting part of this show for you?<\/strong>
\nWe did it for four months in Stratford. But it\u2019s really been a gift to go back to the show and re-work it. We have a slightly new script, we have some new cast members. I wasn\u2019t expecting for us to find more details. We just did a session last night where we found something new. That\u2019s what I love about acting, there is no end point.<\/p>\nWith this show in particular, there are certain pit stops in it that if I think too hard on them, I\u2019d get paralysed by fear and self doubt. So the way I like to approach is to imagine we\u2019re on a train. Our job is to get on the train, go by the stops, and then carry on. So a large part of my answer is that the most exciting thing about this show is that challenge of telling the complete story. To not miss details, even though we will, because we\u2019re human. I think: what is the best, most complete way to manage today? To keep striving and fighting for those bits of details.<\/p>\n
People always ask me if it\u2019s boring to do the same show every night, but it\u2019s not the same show every night. We have the challenge of the same story every night. But we have a new audience. This is a new page, and I have to live it again. With the same, or more, or different intensity and truth. It\u2019s scary some days.
\n
\nWhat do you think it is about this show that\u2019s resonating with people right now?<\/strong>
\nBecause everyone is living life and feeling all the things. Most of the time people can\u2019t and don\u2019t talk about loss. Some people want to, and that\u2019s something we deal with in our show. You watch how different people deal with grief. To watch 18 years of someone\u2019s life, to watch them bullied and trapped, and then watch them fall in love and blossom. To become a new person, to become a mother, to bring children into the world and develop that relationship. <\/p>\nI\u2019ve had so many women say to me that they had a visceral recollection of their own birth, their own labour. Which to me is a massive compliment because I haven\u2019t done it yet, I\u2019m pretending, but I\u2019m glad people recognise it. I think that\u2019s what this story is; it\u2019s connection and recognition. <\/p>\n
There\u2019s obviously this massive loss, but it isn\u2019t all sad. There\u2019s joy, and there\u2019s hope, and there\u2019s conflict. There\u2019s life. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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