Their child Susanna (Phoebe Campbell) is conceived and they are married with opposition from John Shakespeare the bad tempered glovemaker who has fallen on hard times and is impatient with his son’s scholarly pursuits. William is 18 years old and Agnes is older. William gets depressed and leaves for London to go to Bermondsey to act in his father’s glovemaking interests with the Cordwainers and Saddler Leathermakers. 

In Maggie O’Farrell’s version, it is making gloves for actors that sees William’s first engagement with theatres. There is a similar story in my friend’s family history where making gut strings for musical instruments led to his great uncle attending music halls, becoming a performer and later managing them as an impresario.

William comes back to Stratford with tales of a theatre in Shoreditch, that he is making gloves for, conveying all the excitement of the crowd moved by the plays. In Stratford we see the birth of his twins Judith (Alex Jarrett) and Hamnet (Ajani Cabey). 

Act Two sees the similarity between Judith and Hamnet who can pretend to be each other and we wonder about the inspiration for The Comedy of Errors and for Viola and Sebastian in Twelfth Night.  Agnes stays in Stratford with the three children.  There is a good scene in London with actors Will Kempe (Peter Wight) and Richard Burbage (Will Brown).  Burbage complains about his roles, “Why must I always die?” 

In Stratford, the bubonic plague strikes Judith with a sinister Plague doctor in a hideous bird like mask and although she survives, Hamnet contracts it, dies and the burial records show him as aged 11.