Hamnet

Maggie O’Farrell is the author of Hamnet, winner of the Women’s Prize for Fiction 2020 and the fiction prize at the 2020 National Book Critics Circle Awards, and the memoir I Am, I Am, I Am, both Sunday Times No. 1 bestsellers. Her novels include After You’d Gone, My Lover’s Lover, The Distance Between Us, which won a Somerset Maugham Award, The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox, The Hand that First Held Mine, which won the 2010 Costa Novel Award, Instructions for a Heatwave, This Must Be the Place, and The Marriage Portrait, which was shortlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction 2022. She is also the author of three books for children, Where Snow Angels Go, The Boy Who Lost His Spark and When the Stammer Came to Stay. Her new novel, Land, will be published in June 2026. Born in Derry, Northern Ireland, she now lives in Edinburgh.

Lolita is an award-winning playwright and actress.

Writing includes: The stage adaptation of Maggie O’Farrell’s modern classic Hamnet (RSC/ Garrick Theatre West End, US tour); stage adaptation of Booker Prize winning novel Life of Pi (Sheffield Theatres/Wyndham’s Theatre West End/ART in Boston/Broadway, New York/UK, US and International tours); Hymn (Almeida/Sky Arts and Chicago Shakespeare Theatre); Red Velvet (Tricycle/ St Ann’s Warehouse, New York/Garrick Theatre, West End); Invisible Cities (Manchester International Festival and Brisbane Festival); Calmer (BBC Radio 4); Lolita curated The Greatest Wealth (The Old Vic); Last Seen: Joy (Slung Low/Almeida). As Dramaturg: Message in a Bottle (ZooNation/Sadler’s Wells); Sylvia (The Old Vic, UK tour and Royal Albert Hall 2026).

Acting includes: Wendy and Peter Pan (Barbican), The Hunt (Almeida at St Ann’s Warehouse, New York), Summer 1954 (Bath Theatre Royal and UK tour), This Thing of Darkness (BBC Radio 4), Silo (Apple TV), Vigil, Showtrial, The Casual Vacancy (BBC); Fanny and Alexander (The Old Vic); Wheel of Time (Amazon Prime); Born to Kill (Channel 4); Gertrude in Hamlet (RADA directed by Kenneth Branagh); Riviera (Sky); Criminal (Netflix); Screw (Channel 4).

Awards: Lolita’s debut play Red Velvet earned her the Evening Standard Charles Wintour Award for Most Promising Playwright 2012, the Critics’ Circle Award for Most Promising Playwright 2013, an AWA award for Arts and Culture 2013 and several other notable nominations including an Olivier nomination. Red Velvet has had over twenty five productions worldwide and is now studied in schools and universities in the UK and US. Her adaptation of Life of Pi has won numerous awards including five Olivier awards in 2022 of which Lolita won Best Play, the WhatsonStage Award for Best Play, four UK Theatre Awards, including Best Play and three Tony Awards in 2023.

Lolita was awarded an OBE in 2022 for her Services to Drama.

RSC: Erica joined the RSC as Deputy Artistic Director in January 2013, responsible for new work, The Other Place and co-created Shakespeare productions in collaboration with regional UK theatres. She stepped up as Acting Artistic Director in 2021 and led the Company as it recovered from the pandemic. Her single year of programming included My Neighbour Totoro, the Power Shifts season of Shakespeare, The Empress, Falkland Sound, Cowbois, Box of Delights, Fair Maid of the West and Hamnet. She went freelance in June 2023. RSC directing credits include, Revolt. She said. Revolt again. by Alice Birch for the Other Place, The Traverse and Shoreditch Town Hall, in the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, The Christmas Truce by Phil Porter, A Midsummer Night’s Dream: A Play for the Nation, Romeo and Juliet for which Ball Gill won the Ian Charleson Award, and The Winter’s Tale with Kemi-Bo Jacobs as Hermione (for the BBC). In the Swan Erica directed Hecuba by Marina Carr,  The Seven Acts of Mercy by Anders Lustgarten, Miss Littlewood by Sam Kenyon, A Museum in Baghdad by Hannah Khalil and Ben and Imo by Mark Ravenhill.  In 2021 she directed Faith, a major city-wide co-production between the RSC and the Coventry City of Culture Trust.

Trained: Philippe Gaulier in Paris and Bristol Old Vic Theatre School who awarded her an Honorary Doctorate in 2015.

Theatre includes: Erica was Chief Executive of Northern Stage in Newcastle upon Tyne from 2005 to 2012. Under her stewardship Northern Stage became known for ambitious international partnerships, the development of experimental new work especially by young theatre makers and for bold interpretations of modern classics. In 2012 she won the TMA award for Theatre Manager of the Year and was awarded the OBE for services to British Theatre. Erica was also Artistic Director of Southwark Playhouse (1998-2000) and Artistic Director of the Gate Theatre, London (2000-2004) Directing credits for Northern Stage include: Son of Man, Ruby Moon, Our Friends in the North, A Christmas Carol, A Doll’s House, Look Back in Anger, Hansel and Gretel, Oh! What a Lovely War, The Wind in the Willows, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (nominated for Best Director at the 2011 TMA Awards), The Borrowers  (Best Family Production TMA awards 2013), and the UK premiere of Oh, the Humanity? by Will Eno (Edinburgh/ Soho Theatre). Other credits include: The Birthday Party (Sheffield Crucible); The Shadow of a Boy (National Theatre); The Flu Season, Marieluise, Witness, Les Justes (Gate); The Winter’s Tale, The Glass Slipper (Southwark Playhouse). In November 2016, Erica was the recipient of the Peter Brook Special Achievement Award.

Other work includes: Erica is a Visiting Fellow at the University of Oxford where she is contributing to the co-creative strand of the new cultural programme. She is developing a new musical about the Norse Gods and a new play with Good Chance about the Chagos Islands. In 2027 she will direct Serse for Garsington Opera. She is Chair of Improbable.

RSC: Associate Artist. Tom was Associate Designer at the RSC for 10 years and has designed over 55 productions for the Company. Recent productions include: The Tempest, Faith (RSC/Coventry City of Culture), A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Romeo and Juliet (Stratford/UK tour).

Theatre includes: Much ado About Nothing & Eddie Izzard’s Hamlet (Chicago Shakespeare Theater), Richard III, Tempest & As You Like It (Bridge Project – BAM), The Wind in the Wilton’s, The Child in the Snow, A Christmas Carol, The Box of Delights (Wilton’s Music Hall); Medea (Edinburgh International Festival/National Theatre Scotland); The Purists, Girl on an Altar, White Teeth (Kiln Theatre); Macbeth (an Undoing), The Scent of Roses, Lyceum Christmas Tales, The Duchess (of Malfi), Rhinoceros, Mrs Puntila, Hay Fever (Royal Lyceum, Edinburgh); Nora: A Doll’s House (Young Vic); Endgame, King Lear, Hamlet, The Libertine, Nora, & Small Acts of Love (Glasgow Citizens); Rusalka, Pelléas Et Mélisande, Eugene Onegin, Don Giovanni & Queen of Spades (Garsington Opera); Frankenstein, Hedda Gabler (Northern Stage); iHo, The Haystack (Hampstead); Harrogate (HighTide/Royal Court); Cyrano de Bergerac (Royal Lyceum, Edinburgh/ Citizens Theatre/National theatre Scotland); Carmen La Cubana (Le Chatelet, Paris); Red Velvet (West End/Tricycle/ New York); A Wolf in Snakeskin Shoes (Tricycle); The King’s Speech (Birmingham Rep/Chichester Festival Theatre/UK tour); Orfeo (Royal Opera House); Tamburlaine the Great (Theatre for a New Audience, New York); The Great Wave (National Theatre); The Turn of the Screw (Wilton’s Music Hall/OperaGlass Works film). Tom was Associate Designer at the Kiln Theatre 2020-22.

Installation Design includes: Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red at the Tower of London. Tom received an MBE for services to Theatre and First World War commemorations.

Exhibitions include: Alice: Curiouser and Curiouser, Winnie-the-Pooh: Exploring a Classic, Curtain Up (V&A/Lincoln Centre New York); Shakespeare: Staging the World (British Museum).

Awards include: Olivier Award for Best Costume Design for The Histories (RSC); South Bank Arts Award for Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red, Critics’ Circle Award Scotland for Twelfth Night (Dundee Rep) and Macbeth (An Undoing) (Royal Lyceum, Edinburgh).

Prema is the founder of Stage Sight. She is a fellow of The Guildhall School of Music and Drama and the Association of British Theatre Technicians

Theatre includes: Cruise, Mad House, The Comeback, A Day in the Death of Joe Egg (West End); Last Days (Royal Opera House & Los Angeles Philharmonic); Mother Goose (UK tour); Further Than the Furthest Thing, Things of Dry Hours (Young Vic); Hymn (Almeida/Sky Arts); What If If Only, A History of Water in the Middle East, Superhoe (Royal Court); Cow | Deer (Royal Court); The Dumb Waiter (The Old Vic); Swive [Elizabeth], Bartholomew Fair, Richard II (Shakespeare’s Globe, Candle Consultant); Nest (St. Aidan’s Nature Reserve, Leeds 2023); The Taxidermist’s Daughter (Chichester Festival Theatre); Super High Resolution (Soho Theatre); Studio Créole (Manchester International Festival); Of Kith and Kin (Sheffield Crucible/ Bush Theatre); Fame (UK tour/Peacock Theatre); East Is East (Northern Stage/ Nottingham Playhouse); Talking Heads (Leeds Playhouse); Chicken Soup (Sheffield Crucible); Holes, Hercules (Nottingham Playhouse); Mighty Atoms (Hull Truck); A Passage to India (Royal & Derngate/UK tour); A Christmas Carol, The Wizard of Oz (Storyhouse); The York Suffragettes, Murder, Margaret and Me (York Theatre Royal); Love, Lies and Taxidermy, Growth, I Got Superpowers for My Birthday (Paines Plough); The Effect (English Theatre of Frankfurt); The Electric Hills (Liverpool Everyman); The Great Extension (Theatre Royal Stratford East); The Canterville Ghost, Huddle (Unicorn); Wipers (UK tour).

Dance includes: Bells (Mayor of London, 2012); Spill (Düsseldorf); Sufi Zen (Royal Festival Hall); Dhamaka (O2 Arena); Maaya (Westminster Hall). Extended and virtual reality: Museum of Austerity BFI London Film Festival); Adult Children (Donmar Warehouse).

Other work: A-List Party Area (Madame Tussauds, London); Football City, Art United (Aviva Studios).

Oğuz Kaplangı is a composer and sound designer based in Edinburgh, who primarily works in theatre, film, television and advertising. Oğuz moved to the UK in 2018 and that same year he was awarded with the Best Music and Sound in Scotland Theatre at the Critics’ Awards for Theatre in Scotland for his work in Zinnie Harris’ adaptation of Ionesco’s play Rhinoceros.

RSC: A Museum in Baghdad, Hamnet, #WeAreArrested.

Theatre includes: Macbeth (an Undoing), The Duchess (of Malfi), Mrs Puntila and Her Man Matti, Rhinoceros (Royal Lyceum Theatre); Still, The Monstrous Heart, Class Act (Traverse Theatre); Arabian Nights (Bristol Old Vic); Treasure Island (Cumbernauld Theatre); The Alchemist (Tron Theatre); 1984, Let the Right One In, How to Hold Your Breath, Frozen, Yangınlar (adaptation of Incendies) (DOT); Meet Me at Dawn (DOT/Arcola Theatre); Positive Stories for Negative Times (Wonder Fools).

Television includes: Wahlburgers, Kanaga, The Class, Donnie Loves Jenny, Nightwatch, Lock Up, Sexy Beasts, According to Alex, Killer Kids, Young Marvels, Big Brew Theory, Bizarre Foods.

Film includes: Make Me A King, Chasing the Wind, Last Summer, Birthday, Swipe Right, A Glimpse, Bad Cat. Dance: A Wee Journey (Edinburgh International Festival 2022 / Scotland Tour 2023).

Other work includes: Albums and soundtracks: RESIST, 1984, Last Summer, End Your Groan, Yangınlar, Don’t Walk Alone, Rhinoceros, Meet Me at Dawn, Nocturne of Pruva, Istanbul Calling series, Nudge Nudge (Zi Punt), Are You Satisfied? (Rebel Moves).

RSC: Matilda The Musical (Olivier Award for Best Sound; also UK and Ireland tour); Don John (also UK tour); The Merry Wives of Windsor, The Roaring Girl.

Theatre includes: Girl From the North Country (US/UK/Ireland/Australia tour); The Secret Life of Bees (Almeida); Hex (National Theatre); Woman in Mind (Chichester Festival Theatre); Wuthering Heights (Wise Children/UK tour); Bagdad Café (Wise Children/The Old Vic); A Christmas Carol, Groundhog Day, Lungs, Present Laughter (The Old Vic); Malory Towers (Wise Children/Bristol Old Vic/UK tour); Standing at the Sky’s Edge (Sheffield Crucible); Wise Children (Wise Children/The Old Vic/UK tour/BBC film); Brief Encounter (UK tour/Broadway); The Moderate Soprano, The Birthday Party, Shakespeare in Love, Mojo, Boeing Boeing, Loserville, Deathtrap, La Bête, Groundhog Day, The Caretaker, The Master Builder, Future Conditional, High Society, Electra, The Real Thing, The Norman Conquests The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, The Lord of the Rings, The Grinning Man (West End); A Christmas Carol, Girl From the North Country (West End/Broadway/Canada); Complicit, Hedda Gabler, Pinocchio, The Amen Corner, The Light Princess, Tristan & Yseult (Off-Broadway); The Flying Lovers of Vitebsk, The Little Match Girl (UK tour); Romantics Anonymous (UK/US tour); A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Twelfth Night (Shakespeare’s Globe). Live-streamed theatre: A Christmas Carol, Faith Healer, Three Kings, Lungs (The Old Vic in Camera); The Flying Lovers of Vitebsk (Wise Children/Kneehigh/Bristol Old Vic); Romantics Anonymous (Wise Children/ Bristol Old Vic).

Awards: Olivier for Best Sound for Matilda The Musical. Simon is a Fellow of the Guildhall School, Associate Artist for The Old Vic, Kneehigh Theatre and part of Emma Rice’s new movement, Wise Children.

RSC: Associate Artist. Hamnet (2023, 2024), As You Like It (2019, 2013), The Provoked Wife, Romeo and Juliet, The Duchess of Malfi, Dido, Queen of Carthage, Doctor Faustus, Hecuba, The Shoemaker’s Holiday, The White Devil, The Merry Wives of Windsor, Richard III, King John, Measure for Measure, Little Eagles, The Gods Weep, Days of Significance.

Trained: University of Bristol and Jacques Lecoq, Paris.

Theatre includes: Anna Karenina, The Other Boleyn Girl ( Chichester Festival Theatre); Never Let Me Go ( Rose theatre/National Tour); And Then There Were None (UK/China/Ireland tour); Mary, Belongings, Folk (Hampstead Theatre); The Sleep Show, The Dark (Peut-Être Theatre/UK tour); Dido’s Bar (Dash Arts/UK tour); Let Your Hands Sing in the Silence (Projekt Europa); I DO, Ballad of Thamesmead, Kiss Marry Kill and Skin Hunger (Dante or Die); [BLANK] (Donmar Warehouse); The Wolves (Theatre Royal Stratford East); Shakespeare in Love (national tour); Othello (Sam Wanamaker at Shakespeare’s Globe); Fantastic Mr Fox (Nuffield Southampton/national and international tour); Lady Chatterley’s Lover (Crucible Theatre/English Touring Theatre national tour); The Government Inspector (Birmingham Rep/national tour); The York Minster Mystery Plays (York Minster); Barbarians, Ma Vie en Rose (Young Vic); Shh…Bang! (Peut-Être Theatre/national tour); Tidy Up (Peut-Être Theatre); Much Ado About Nothing (Manchester Royal Exchange); The Chairs (Theatre Royal Bath); The Tempest (Gdansk Shakespeare Festival); Sarajevo Story, Brixton Stories (Lyric Hammersmith); Stacy (Trafalgat Studios); Macbeth (Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre); La Songe du 21 Juin (French national tour); Here’s What I Did With My Body One Day (Pleasance/national tour); Chi Chi Bunichi (tour).

Opera includes: The Sleeper (Welsh National Opera Max, Cardiff Coal Exchange); Sweeney Todd (Welsh National Opera Max, Millennium Centre); The Beggar’s Opera (Blackheath Concert Halls); L’Orfeo (Greenwich).

Puppetry includes: Feast on the Bridge (Thames Festival); Silent Tide (ICA); Forget Me Not (London International Mime Festival).

Publications include: Movement Directors in Contemporary Theatre: Conversations on Craft, introduction to The Actor and His Body by Litz Pisk, ‘Movement direction as R&D’ in Research and Development in British Theatre; ‘British Movement Directors’ in The Routledge Companion to Jacques Lecoq.

RSC: The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind, All is But Fantasy, Henry V, Venice Preserved, Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth, Two Noble Kinsmen, Hamlet, Titus Andronicus, King Lear, Love’s Sacrifice, Doctor Faustus.

Theatre includes: Regular work at the National Theatre, RSC, Donmar Warehouse, Shakespeare’s Globe and in the West End. Kate has also worked in many of the country’s regional theatres. Recent work includes: High Noon, Othello, Stereophonic, The Great Gatsby, Barcelona, The Hills of California, Tina – The Tina Turner Musical, The Maids, The Pride, The Hothouse, East is East (West End); Evita, Much Ado About Nothing, The Tempest (Jamie Lloyd Company); Sunset Boulevard, Cyrano de Bergerac, The Ruling Class, Macbeth, Richard III (ATG & Jamie Lloyd Company); Bacchae, Hamlet, Alterations, Grapes of Wrath, The Father and the Assassin, The Effect, Small Island, Much Ado About Nothing, Frankenstein, One Man Two Guvnors, War Horse, Hamlet, Othello, Women Beware Women, The Curious Incident of The Dog in the Night-Time (National Theatre); Arcadia, The Brightening Air (The Old Vic); Richard II, Guys & Dolls, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Julius Caesar (Bridge Theatre); Animal Farm (Stratford East); Macbeth (Wessex Grove); King Lear, Portia Coughlan, The Secret Life of Bees, The Tragedy of Macbeth (Almeida); Treasure Island, Starter for Ten (Bristol Old Vic); A Knight’s Tale (Manchester Opera House); Private Lives, Clyde’s, Henry V (Donmar); Sweat (Donmar & Gielgud Theatre); Julius Caesar and Henry IV (Donmar, Kings Cross Theatre & St Annes Warehouse, Brooklyn); Little Shop of Horrors (Sheffield Theatres); Rigoletto (Welsh National Opera); Lord of the Flies (Leeds Playhouse), Peter Pan, Jesus Christ Superstar, Evita (Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre); Sing Yer Heart Out for the Lads (Chichester Festival Theatre).

Screen includes: Coronation Street, Emmerdale and Hollyoaks, on all of which she is a regular fight director. She has recently filmed: My Policeman (Amazon Studios); Death of England (Sky Arts/ National Theatre – BAFTA nominee for Best Single Drama); Romeo and Juliet (Sky Arts/PBS America/National Theatre); Pondlife, Making Noises Quietly (Open Palm Films). Short: Gym (RADA).

Other work: Kate is a qualified boxing coach and coaches at Rathbone Amateur Boxing Club.

Theatre includes: The Weir (Harold Pinter); Small Hotel (Theatre Royal Bath); Mrs Warren’s Profession (Garrick); The Hunger Games (Troubadour); The Years (Harold Pinter); Unicorn (Garrick); Slave Play (Noel Coward); The Hills of California (Harold Pinter); Jerusalem (Apollo); Leopoldstadt (Wyndham’s); Uncle Vanya (Harold Pinter Theatre); The Son (Duke of York’s/Kiln Theatre); The Night of the Iguana (Noël Coward Theatre); Sweat (Gielgud/Donmar Warehouse); Rosmersholm (Duke of York’s); True West (Vaudeville); The Ferryman (Royal Court/ Gielgud/Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre); The Moderate Soprano (Hampstead/Duke of York’s); The Birthday Party, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (Harold Pinter Theatre); Consent (National Theatre/Harold Pinter Theatre); The Goat, or Who is Sylvia? (Theatre Royal Haymarket); Hangmen (Royal Court/Wyndham’s/Atlantic Theatre Company); Berberian Sound Studio (Donmar Warehouse); Women Beware the Devil, Daddy, The Hunt, Shipwreck, Dance Nation, Albion (Almeida); Stories, Exit the King (National Theatre); White Noise, A Very Very Very Dark Matter (Bridge); The Brothers Size (Young Vic); Maryland, ear for eye, Girls & Boys, Cyprus Avenue (Royal Court).

The Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) is a leading global theatre company that sparks local, national and international conversations that build connections, create opportunities and bring joy. We passionately believe that great storytelling can change the world, and that theatre offers its own unique form of storytelling: it’s live and shared, and transforms a group of strangers into audiences who, together, experience a story come to life in front of their eyes. 

We collaborate with the most exciting artists to tell the stories of our time, and through a range of programmes we nurture the talent of the future.  

We perform on three stages in our home in Stratford-upon-Avon, in London and in communities and schools across the country and around the world.  

Our transformative Creative Learning and Engagement programmes reach over half a million young people each year. 

Neal Street is one of the UK’s most respected production companies, producing film, television and theatre. Founded 2003 by Sam Mendes, Pippa Harris and Caro Newling, it makes distinctive, popular award-winning projects on both sides of the Atlantic.  

TV includes Call the Midwife, The Franchise, Britannia, Penny Dreadful, The Hollow Crown. 

Films include Mendes’ Empire of Light, 1917 and Revolutionary Road; Hamnet and The Magic Faraway Tree. Currently in development The Beatles project for Sony Pictures – four distinct theatrical feature films about the greatest band in history, conceived and directed by Sam Mendes. 

Theatre originated by Neal Street includes The Lehman Trilogy, The Motive and the Cue, The Hills of California, Hamnet, Local Hero, The Ferryman, Shrek the Musical, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, The Bridge Project 2010 – 2012, Three Days of Rain, The Vertical Hour. 

West End transfers include The Fifth Step, Walking with Ghosts, The Moderate Soprano, This House, The Painkiller, Merrily We Roll Along, South Downs/The Browning Version, Red, Enron, Sunday in the Park with George, Mary Stuart.  

The theatre slate is overseen by Newling together with producer, Georgia Gatti.  

In 2015 Neal Street moved under the umbrella of parent company, All3Media, which is owned by RedBird IMI.   

nealstreetproductions.com 

Pemberley Productions is a producing, general management, and tour booking company based in Chicago/New York. We collaborate with overseas companies and US-based productions to bring theatre across North America as well as internationally. Highlights include the long-running West End production of The Woman in Black (off-Broadway at NYC’s McKittrick Hotel and across the US); the US Tour of Wise Children’s Wuthering Heights; the US Tour of the National Theatre’s An Inspector Calls (both seen at Chicago Shakespeare); the Center Theatre Group production of The Secret Garden; and the US Tour of The Last Ship (starring STING). In the 25/26 Season, Pemberley is also looking after Kim’s Convenience (US Tour), Heathers The Musical (off-Broadway), Roald Dahl’s The Enormous Crocodile (US Tour), Elizabeth McGovern’s Ava: The Secret Conversations (US/Canada Tour), and more. For information on upcoming tours and projects in development, visit www.pemberleyproductions.com