‘Will’ is a topnotch production
As everyone knows, William Shakespeare bequeathed to the world some of the world’s greatest plays, comic and tragic. What many probably don’t know is that the story of how his plays actually survived is almost as good a story as one of his plays. At that time, plays were the equivalent of movie scripts today; they were not printed as books. So how is it that we have 37 Shakespeare plays to read and see performed?
The answer to that question provides Lauren Gunderson the material for her new play, “The Book of Will,” currently receiving a terrific production at the Adobe Theater under the skilled direction of Brian Hansen.
At the time of Shakespeare’s death in 1616, only a smattering of his plays had been printed, and those in mostly unreliable, if not spurious, cheap quarto versions often put together by unscrupulous copyists scrawling the actors’ words as fast as they could so they could make an easy buck. “The Book of Will” begins with a performance of “Hamlet” using the “bad quarto.” Instead of “To be or not to be, that is the question. Whether ‘tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune” we get “To be or not to be, ay there’s the point, to die, to sleep, is that all? Ay all.”
In 1623, two of the actors from the King’s Men acting company, and good friends of Shakespeare, John Hemings and Henry Condell, published the complete works of Shakespeare in one huge and expensive book. This was no easy feat; for one thing, they didn’t have the scripts or know where they might find them. But despite the challenge, they pressed on in a labor of love.
If this sounds like boring bookish subject matter, nothing could be further from the truth. The Elizabethans were passionate people, living, loving, fighting, drinking and scheming in a very big way. These are the people who make up Shakespeare’s plays, after all.
Richard Burbage, the greatest star of his day and the man who originated the roles of Hamlet, Richard III, and Macbeth (among many others) is larger than life, and dies all too soon in this production, as Tim Riley is fabulous as the hard-drinking actor with an ego to match his talent. The only bigger ego on the stage is Shakespeare’s rival playwright, Ben Jonson (who drinks as much as Burbage), brilliantly and comically played by Tim Crofton. Along the way, we meet Shakespeare’s “Dark Lady”— nicely played by Fabianna Borghese — the woman who tormented the young poet with her beauty and inspired his great sonnet sequence. We also meet the greedy publisher William Jaggard (wellacted by Timothy Kupjack), without whom also Shakespeare would be lost to us. Harry Zimmerman and Phil Shortell are very good as the duo most responsible for preserving Will’s plays.
Brian Hansen’s set serves as Elizabethan stage and backstage as well as tavern and printer’s workshop and captures the period very well, as do Sophia Bernal’s costumes.
“The Book of Will” is playing through July
29 at Adobe Theater, 9813 Fourth NW. Go to adobetheater.org or call 898-9222 for reservations.