‘Hamnet’ production designer builds Shakespeare’s Globe Theater in less than four months

“Hamnet” production designer Fiona Crombie is no stranger to the world of William Shakespeare.

More than 20 years ago, she designed Hamlet for Australia’s Bell Shakespeare Company. “I don’t think we really had the kind of ruminations about death that we felt through this movie,” she says of Chloe Zhao’s Hamnet, which is based on Maggie O’Farrell’s 2020 novel. The film, starring Paul Mescal as William Shakespeare and Jesse Buckley as his wife Agnes, tells the story of a couple grieving the death of their 11-year-old son Hamnet, and how William began writing the classic tragedy Hamlet.

One of the sets Crombie was tasked with was creating London’s Globe Theater in the late 1500s. It was a big moment for Crombie and dominated the third act of the film. “[Chao and I]ended up going back to London and sitting together at the Globe Theater,” Crombie says. Zhao and Crombie debated whether or not to shoot there. “But that was never something that was possible,” Crombie says. “We sat there and realized that it was too ornate for our purposes. And it wasn’t the right globe for our movie.”

London’s Globe Theater was still being rebuilt as an important center for theatrical production, so it was decided that Crombie would build it for the film, giving her some creative freedom.

Mr. Zhao wanted a theater that was smaller and more intimate than the current one. She said she wanted to feel the relationship between the audience and the stage. “We reduced it to 75% of our actual global footprint,” Crombie says.

Another instruction from Mr. Zhao was that he wanted the theater to look like it was inside a tree. “This set us on the path to using all reclaimed wood,” says Crombie. For the various constructions of Shakespeare’s mansion, the attic, and the Globe Theater, Crombie brought in 20 tons of oak beams from France.

It took Crombie and her team 14 weeks to build the theater. “It’s not intentionally ornate. If you like joinery, it has beautiful joinery, but the focus is on the stage. And that was a very deliberate choice. It was very basic, almost like a vessel for his play,” she says.

Crombie also notes that the wood was aged, which was perfect for the story. She explains: “It meant something to me, it meant something to the Globe, it meant something to[Shakespeare]House. There was a scar in the wood.”

Anecdotally, she added, the first Globe Theater, where Shakespeare saw performances of his plays, was made of recycled wood.

Looking back, Crombie says she was struck by the juxtaposition of nature and the controlled form of a Tudor mansion with its stucco and heavy beams. And there’s a rambling nature in Agnes’ world.

Her research relied heavily on paintings of the time, and she found herself making extensive use of soft, earthy tones. Inside Shakespeare’s house, she used black walls with painted details. “This family was successful and had money, and then they lost money, so there was something about the house that showed a level of choice and decoration that then faded and went into decline,” Crombie says.