Opening night of the Cloverdale Playhouse's intelligently entertaining production of The Book. of Will played to an enthusiastic full-house, responding to director Sam Wootten's ensemble actors tracking the series of challenges leading up to the publication of William Shakespeare's First Folio compilation of his plays.
The script by prolific playwright Lauren Gunderson is a fictionalized account of actual events as Shakespeare's friends and acting colleagues Henry Condell [J.Scott Grinstead] and John Heminges [Christopher Crockett] recognize that the Bard's works could easily disappear or be conscripted by lesser talents unless the accurate texts are printed to preserve his legacy. "Publish or vanish; that's the choice". And the world is better off that they succeeded.
Facing seemingly unsurmountable odds -- finding complete scripts and piecing some of them together from available "sides" used by actors, securing funding, sacrificing friendships and family concerns, identifying a reliable individual to print an expensive volume -- much of the play follows the ups and downs of their quest. And though we know the result ahead of time, Gunderson and the Playhouse cohort maintain the suspense.
But Gunderson's play is more than a suspenseful story. Listed as "the most produced living playwright in America" for the third time this year, her plays include a variety of styles and genres, contain an array of subjects often based on historical people and events, address feminist agendas, and are written in language accessible to contemporary audiences regardless of historical setting. -- In The Book of Will, her focus on Shakespeare's legacy lives side by side with considerations of the value of lasting friendship and loyalty to friends and family, the importance of women who are too often ignored, and the power of theatre itself to make audiences think about their own humanity.
Mr. Grinstead and Mr. Crockett show their characters' different approaches to the task [emotional investment vs. practical considerations], and are abetted by their spouses [Sarah Kay and Julie Janson] as well as Heminges' daughter Alice [an impressive Olive Henninger], and a coterie of actors portraying multiple roles. Take your pick; each one makes a strong impression.
Played on Mr. Grinstead's flexible unit set, and with luscious Tudor-influenced costumes by Suzanne Booth, The Book of Will transports us to the past while reminding us of the universals of friendship, family, and legacy.
