by James Mottram
“I think I have a very loose relationship with accuracy!” laughs Fiona Crombie, the Australian production designer whose new project Hamnet is gaining huge attention in the awards season. Adapted from Maggie O’Farrell’s 2020 novel, itself an imagining of the domestic life of English playwright William Shakespeare, the film required Crombie to design late 16th Century houses and even a rudimentary version of the Globe theatre, where Shakespeare’s plays were first performed.
It’s not her first time digging into history. Among an esteemed body of work that’s seen her collaborate with the likes of Bong Joon-ho (Mickey 17), Jane Campion (Top of the Lake) and Ari Aster (Beau is Afraid), Crombie has frequently been asked to bring the past to life. Think of The Favourite, Yorgos Lanthimos’ Queen Anne-era drama from 2018. Or Macbeth, the bruised and bloody 2015 version by Justin Kurzel, that starred Michael Fassbender as Shakespeare’s tragic Scottish anti-hero.
When it came to realising these worlds, Crombie has always ditched period perfection in favour of a more sensual feeling. “I tend to go towards what is right for our film, what is going to give you the feeling and the emotion and the relationship. I learned that very quickly on Macbeth, because we were making 11th century Scotland, and we just couldn’t afford to build very much. So, what you think about is … what’s the essence? What are we trying to convey?”
On Hamnet, Crombie worked with Chloé Zhao, the director of the Oscar-winning Nomadland. Their first collaboration together, they first met in a car park in Wales as they were scouting a forest location for the film. “I remember, later that day, having a local Indian [meal] in Wales, just thinking, ‘We’re going to be good. This is going to be good.’ She was very open, open and inviting to all of us to bring what we wanted to bring to this film. I think she has enormous depth.”
The film stars Paul Mescal as Shakespeare – or “Will” as he is simply known. Jessie Buckley, a red hot favourite at this year’s Oscars for her stunning turn, is Agnes, the woman he meets and starts a family with. As anyone who has read O’Farrell’s novel will know, the story centres on their three children – especially the young Hamnet (Jacobi Jupe), whose fate inspires the emerging playwright to pen Hamlet, perhaps the most famous work of English literature.
“I’d read the book, and I really loved the book, and then when I read the screenplay, the first draft, it just felt like I hadn’t read something like that before – that had a relationship and an intimacy to a family and a couple and the incredible cycles of life,” says Crombie. “For me, it felt something really fresh. I really had such a strong response to that first draft. Ideas just came.”
Over two decades ago, Crombie designed Hamlet for Australia’s Bell Shakespeare Company, but this was never going to be a repeat assignment. To her and many of the crew, Mescal and Buckley’s characters were always Will and Agnes. The name ‘Shakespeare’ is only mentioned once in the script, and while there are allusions to his works – including Macbeth – it was never meant to be a biopic about Shakespeare. Rather, Zhao takes it in the direction of an earthy, naturalistic drama about grief and loss.
Early in the process, Crombie took a tour of Stratford-upon-Avon, England, where Shakespeare lived. “It was never for us about recreating anything or rebuilding anything. We wanted to go in and see what it felt like. Like you do with a performance you’re interpreting, so we’re interpreting these homes and how they impact and how they make those characters feel. For me, it was a lot about how does Will feel when he walks in the door? We see him walk that threshold and know that he’s going into that environment where his father is sitting at the head of the table. So what does that feel like?”
Rather than shoot in the tourist-heavy Stratford, the decision was taken to film, partly, in the village of Weobley in Herefordshire, about sixty miles away. Builds included the Shakespeare family house, with Crombie ordering 20 tons of oak wood beams to be shipped in from France to help create this authentic 16th Century living space. “One of the things that really drew me to the project was how to make an everyday, ordinary life for this family. The audience is brought close to them with their everyday life. It’s not a museum piece. We’re not admiring it from afar.”
Crombie also rebuilt London’s Globe Theatre, where Shakespeare’s reputation was founded. “We just made our own version that felt appropriate to our film. It’s more intimate. It’s a lot simpler. I mean, we’re also building the first version of the Globe, which is a bit of an unknown. I was able to make it feel like something that was the beginning of a person’s career and the first theatre that they would ever build. And also, crucially, it felt like it had a relationship to the forest. It was a beautiful thing to build, actually.”
When Crombie’s work was done, she was able to sit back and admire Buckley and Mescal, as they shot. “The thing that I think is always extraordinary, and the greatest compliment for me as a designer, is when they inhabit the spaces as though they’ve lived there. I’d see them sitting in the backyard, or relaxing between takes. People didn’t leave. They’re actually comfortable in the spaces that we made. Jessie loved the bed. She would sleep in that … she’d have naps. I think everybody actually became really attached to those spaces.”
Now the film is one of the major awards contenders. Is Crombie nervous? “Do you know what? The bigger thing is knowing that it’s been so beautifully received. I’m hearing about people that have seen it two to three times. There are loads of people finding something in this film that is individual to them. For it to be embraced like this, it’s really exciting and it’s really beautiful. I think it’s a film people can revisit. I absolutely think in five years’ time, it will mean something different. That’s what’s special about it.”
Hamnet is in cinemas now
