Chloé Zhao’s Oscar-worthy movie “Hamnet” strikes me as a very mixed blessing for Britain’s Royal Shakespeare Company, now back at Chicago Shakespeare Theater on Navy Pier with a Stateside premiere of that title, kicking off a short national tour that now goes to Washington, D.C., and San Fr ancisco. On the one hand, the attendant publicity only builds on the widespread popularity of the beautiful Maggie O’Farrell novel from 2020, surely boosting demand for this production. Royal Shakespeare’s 2023 production of Lolita Chakrabarti’s adaptation for the stage transferred to the West End and was a huge U.K. hit for the venerable Shakespeare-centered company. On the other hand, though, it invites comparison with what was, for my money, the best movie I saw last year, replete with arguably (well, inarguably to me) the two best lead performances from Jessie Buckley and Paul Mescal, actors with emotional wells so deep as to make you fear they will never resurface. This is a critical dilemma for me. I’ve always tried to avoid comparing stage productions with movies on the grounds that any such ranking is unfair to actors and directors, the two mediums being different beasts and, since few folks are seeing both, irrelevant to most readers. But I cannot unsee a movie that had such a profound impact on me and struck me, fundamentally, as the most powerful tribute to what mothers did, and do, for their children that I’d ever seen in a fictional story. I saw the film, which has a screenplay by both Zhao and O’Farrell, with my family (I have two sons who think they are grown), and I recall being suddenly upset that they seemed not to notice that revelation. At the same time, I also wanted them to understand the film’s message (drawn, of course, from the novel) about the redemptive power of drama — or if you prefer, storytelling, and how that is the best tool I know to cope with devastating loss. It offers the bereft the possibility of transformation; something William Shakespeare, the most famous Briton ever to live, understood only late in his life. “Hamnet” is about not only Shakespeare’s growing understanding of that truth, but that of his wife, here rendered as Agnes Hathaway. The plot draws to some degree from the shards of the confirmable Shakespearean biography but mostly is fictionalized. It’s a riff on the idea, common among anyone who loves Shakespeare, that the well-documented loss of his titular real-life child not only led Shakespeare to a profound understanding of grief, visible in all his plays, but may have led to much of what is explored in his masterpiece, “Hamlet.” (Don’t get hung up on the names; the spellings were used interchangeably.) We see this couple court and meet, her enigmatic self often providing him with plot ideas for his later plays, and then have children in rural England. Not all survive, as was common in the era. Shakespeare leaves to go to London to pursue his muse and Agnes shoulders the tough slog of everyday parenting. After their mutual losses become overwhelming, Agnes finally makes it to London to see what her husband has been writing. In the far more hopeful movie, William and Agnes are deeply in love and you believe in their ability to transcend pain. In the RSC’s stage version, at least with a leading duo that does not feel especially vulnerable or emotionally connected to each other, not so much. And whatever else you are doing or not doing with this particular title, that has to be the first priority, not mutual distrust or even anger at circumstance or at the rank unfairness and inequities of life, tempting and viable as those avenues may be. There is no question that director Erica Whyman’s staging is highly creative, utilizing a mostly skeletal set from Tom Piper and injecting an admirable fluidity into the storytelling. Led by Kemi-Bo Jacobs and Rory Alexander, the cast of more than a dozen is highly kinetic and the work is as technically adept and centered on the body as you’d expect from the world’s leading classical theater company. (Troy Alexander, who plays Bartholomew, is especially good, as are Ava Hinds-Jones, who plays Susanna, and Nigel Barrett, playing William’s embittered father.) I am no fan of the constant use of exhaled breaths as part of a soundtrack, perhaps because these days it feels like a devised-work cliché, but much theatrical creativity unfolds before your eyes, including some fine young performers who are the future of this company. Saffron Dey and Ajani Cabey in "Hamnet" at Chicago Shakespeare Theater by the Royal Shakespeare Company. (Kyle Flubacker) But it feels at times like Chakrabarti’s adaptation, which has a more contemporary point of view and is far more cynical about both Shakespeare’s genius and his partnership with Agnes than the novel, actually works against O’Farrell’s determination to advocate the Stephen Sondheim view of life that love is an existential need for all of us and that children and art are the only immortal things truly worth leaving behind. The film comes with the capacity to heal; this stage version, not so much, especially since the crucial conclusionary catharsis did not rise with sufficient stakes on opening night, to my disappointment. But then a reader might conclude I came in with some pre-determined ideas of what this should all be about. Guilty as charged on this occasion (rare, I swear), and if you are not so poisoned, you likely will have a more rewarding evening with some of Chicago’s most welcome visitors. Chris Jones is a Tribune critic [email protected] Review: “Hamnet” (3 stars) When: Through March 8 Where: The Yard at Chicago Shakespeare Theater on Navy Pier, 800 E. Grand Ave. Running time: 2 hours, 30 minutes Tickets: $58-$149 at 312-595-5600 and chicagoshakes.com ...read more read less