Hamnet : A Screenplay

by Michael Powers

136 pages, Kindle Edition

Published January 19, 2026

About the author

Raised in a small Midwestern farming community, Michael left home at twenty to explore the world. After spending most of the ’70s in the United States Air Force, he earned an MBA and went to work in corporate finance. Twenty years later, his interest in the way people live, love, and work led him to change careers. Today Michael travels extensively as a performance coach for small businesses. He’s lived in eight states and traveled to forty countries in Europe, Southeast Asia, and Latin America. His interests include medical technology, international affairs, and global finance. Michael believes the true measure of a person or group can be determined by observing how they act in a crisis.

Reviews

[Ross Bonaime · Rating 4 out of 5]

In the adapted screenplay category, it’s always intriguing to see what happens when the authors of the source material get a chance to write a new version of their original work. For Hamnet, Maggie O’Farrell — the author of the original 2020 novel — adapts her own book alongside director Chloé Zhao, and, if anything, makes her story even more powerful. While the novel follows two different timelines, one which focuses on the early relationship of Agnes and William Shakespeare, the other on the sickness that takes over their home and what happens after, this screenplay simplifies this concept and, in doing so, makes it even more emotional.

Zhao and O’Farrell simply combine these two storylines to tell Hamnet chronologically. That’s it. And yet, it makes such a big difference, as we see the relationship with Agnes and Will bloom, their relationship with their children, and the aftermath of tragedy, all in order. By having that build-up, Hamnet improves upon O’Farrell’s book significantly. But also, the way that O’Farrell and Zhao write this screenplay is wonderfully handled as well, as though they’re writing a novel rather than a screenplay. In this work, it’s as though the feel and the emotions of this story matter more than the dialogue itself. O’Farrell set the stage for Hamnet with her book, but together, O’Farrell and Zhao made this story sing with their incredible screenplay.

[Valeria Flores · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found the screenplay to be ten times better than the movie. It includes a lot of details that were missed on the screen. Either way, the screenplay itself is beautiful because it's human.

[Freddy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Writers: Chloé Zhao (also director) and Maggie O'Farrell