The woman behind the man takes her chance to shine
The Bay Area’s weekly roundup of arts, culture, and community | April 24 to 30, 2026
If you, like me, found yourself quietly sobbing while watching the lives of Anges and William unfold in Hamnet when it came to the big screen last year, then I’ve got happy (or maybe not so happy) news: you can experience the heartbreak and quiet beauty all over again with the stage production.
Hamnet, co-produced by the Royal Shakespeare Company and Neal Street Productions, has opened at American Conservatory Theater. Before going to the theatre, learn more about the real woman that inspired the character of Agnes. A.C.T. investigates the mysterious woman who captured the heart of one of the theatre’s most prolific writers. – Ciara
The woman at the center of Hamnet is wild and bold, tender and nurturing, skilled in her arts and possessed of unusual gifts. So powerfully does she emerge from Maggie O’Farrell’s story that the fictionalized Shakespeare, and the audience with him, can’t help asking Who is she? We have limited factual information on Anne/Agnes Hathaway, the woman who became Shakespeare’s wife, but imaginative speculation has always run wild. From the marriage register, which indicates Anne was eight years older than her teenaged husband, centuries of (male) scholars have chosen to extrapolate that the Bard’s wife was (at 26!) an unattractive spinster, who likely entrapped Our Hero into marriage by getting inconveniently pregnant.
On the Stage
Yuja Wang & Mahler Chamber Orchestra
Classical | San Francisco Symphony
April 26 | Tickets
Yuja Wang does double duty as pianist and director in a program of 20th-century favorites by Prokofiev with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra.
More Events
- Víkingur Ólafsson | Cal Performances | April 29 | View Print Program
- Hadestown | ATG San Francisco | Now – April 26
- ASL Interpreted: April 24
- Audio Described: April 26
- La Traviata | Opera San José | Now – May 3
- The Monsters | Berkeley Repertory Theatre | Now – May 3 | View Program
- Closed Captioned: matinees through April 30
Next Line
- San Francisco Symphony remembers Michael Tilson Thomas who passed away on Wednesday. Performances in June of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony will be dedicated to the longtime SF Symphony leader.
- Center Repertory Company has announced their 2026/27 season which includes four shows under the theme of Dreamers & Daredevils.
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