Let’s start in the middle, shall we? We are witnessing the Book Of Will at the Lake Country Playhouse and Academy. And I am going to paraphrase here since I wasn’t sitting with the groundlings transcribing the spoken text (YKIYK). After reading a purloined copy of the first folio of William Shakespeare’s collected works, a very drunken and depressed Ben Jonson barges into the Globe Tap Room and explains his three day drunken bender: “I have seen them acted and I have heard them acted but I have never been alone with them before.” And that is the key takeaway from this story. A well told and well imagined telling of what may have happened as the surviving original members of the Globe Theater Company assemble and publish the collected works of William Shakespeare. Without these efforts, the audiences of the 21st Century would never have had the opportunity to see Shakespeare acted or hear Shakespeare exclaimed or to just be alone with him.
And now, the beginning: Sophia Bernhardt commands the stage as Hamlet! Bernhardt is impish, over confident, and hams it up to the max and acting for a company in competition to the Globe is working from a tainted script. We can all cringe as she mauls the most famous bit from Shakespeare, To Be or Not To Be! And then Bernhardt dares to appear at the Globe Tap Room and plays the preening star and clearly knows her appearance her makes here a scoundrel. But never fear, Paul Weir’s Richard Burbage, the star in many Globe productions, drives the young Hamlet and the other members of the rogue company from the establishment with of all things, a baseball bat (conveniently hanging from the bar wall along with a number of epees and a badminton racket). Weir’s Burbage is regal, dynamic, eloquent, and maybe just a bit pompous. But clearly in control of his faculties and cleanly recites any number of soliloquies from memory to the amazement of his companions. A fact worth noting as we lose Burbage immediately after this act and the remaining company realizes that he was the only one who knew ALL of the plays and what should they do now?
So let’s discover the marvelous characters that playwright Lauren Gunderson has gifted to us and the remarkable actors who bring them to life.
The anchor or focus is John Heminges, one of the founding members of the Globe Theater. He had given up acting to become the theater’s manager. Naturally when the group decides to assemble Shakespeare’s plays and publish them, they all turn the Heminges as the man to get it done. Cory Klein portrays Heminges as an assured and confident manager of the theater and he agrees that a folio must be produced. But during the work toward publication he expresses regret over leaving acting and at times has doubts about his ability to lead the project. And that introduces a true love story from Gunderson that certainly is worthy of a play about Shakespeare. Diane Kallas is Rebecca Heminges and John’s rock. And she has as much knowledge of the theater and Shakespeare’s importance as anybody in the company and Kallas is a solid source of support and sees past the doubts Klein portrays and insists that he complete publishing the plays. And their final scene together as she takes sick and eventually passes is so full of drama and love that you can’t help be feel choked up as well.
Another theater couple are the Condells. Henry is also a founding member of the Globe and Oliver Kuhtz’s character loves Shakespeare and the Globe and his fellows too. And he is a calming hand during the various events and wholly supports Heminges in the efforts to produce the folio. His wife, Elizabeth, also is involved in encouraging the folio and as played by Evelyn Ewald is also a supporting character for Henry and the others. Ewald is entirely a graceful spirit throughout the change in moods and scenes.
Victoria Wozniak plays a very key and central character to pulling together the disparate parts to complete the folio, Ralph Crane. The Globe’s copyist, hand writing out each part for the actors, Wozniak first gives a little bit of push back but once committed is essential to putting the plays in the correct internal order and historical order. Only Crane has handled and read every script in its entirety in the past and other than Burbage probably has the most complete understanding of the entire catalog. Wozniak certainly jumps into the work and provides a get it done no nonsense personality once the real work gets underway. And Alice Heminges is the daughter of John and Rebecca. She is also the barmaid at the Globe Tap Room. Madison Nowak is delightful as Alice. With a quick wit, an eye for who needs another round and who needs to be cut off, flirtatious at times, but always alert to the mood in the room. She would be an agile and competent barkeep in any watering hole hereabouts. She too gives her father the confidence to carry on.
And then there is Ben Jonson. Per David Wise, Jonson is something of a braggart and self-promoting loud mouth. And as a competitor of Shakespeare, willing to belittle and denigrate the bard’s work. And at the Tap Room, he easily imbibes too much and openly flirts with Alice who fittingly puts him in his place. And then the raw shift to depression and drunkenness after reading the portfolio and realizing what we may have all lost and how wrong he was about the plays.
The publishers: William Jaggard is the villain at first, having published Shakespeare works without license, to hero when he is the only publisher willing to take on the project. William Molitor plays the blind publisher who knows who he is and what he has and is willing to compromise to take on the job and cement his reputation. But as events unfold he softens a bit. His son Isaac Jaggard is the actual publisher of the folio and is eager to take on the task. Topher Lowmar is Isaac, earnest, dedicated, and in love with the idea of publishing Shakespeare’s complete works. He is so involved that his father suggests that he take full publishing credit in the end.
And Sophia Bernhardt reappears…a number of times as a crier announcing the next shows at the Globe, to great comic affect, and later as the compositor/printer at Jaggard’s shop. Bernhardt turns from madcap to serious and persnickety artisan for this part of the play.
and just let’s leave Pericles out of it.
Director Morgan Gates assembled a remarkable cast and kept the action moving across a number of locales, changing emotional expressions, and 18 scene changes. The quick changes and the continuity is marvelous to experience. Although he has the cast working with British accents they never got too thick and in the way, every line was easy to understand. And let’s circle back to Victoria Wozniak who besides playing a number of roles, was the costume designer here. Simply perfect.
Book of Will runs through Feb 1. 2006 at Lake Country Playhouse and Academy in downtown Hartland WI. Tickets here! Run time is 2 hours including plus a 15 minute intermission.