 |
| Kate Hurster, David Kelly, Kevin Kenerly, Jefferey King. Photo by Jenny Graham |
A Legacy of
Loyalty
This revealing look at Shakespeare’s times is a West Coast
Premiere by Lauren Gunderson and directed by Christopher Liam Moore. It is playing at the outdoor Allen
Elizabethan Theatre in repertory, through October 13th. For more information, go to their site at www.osfashland.org
Fame may be fleeting but friends are forever! When the Final Judgement is rendered, who
will stand by our sides and attest for us?
It will be, I believe, our actions and deeds, our own words and thoughts,
and our friends. “We are such stuff as
dreams are made on…” and so, this life, too, will pass into obscurity…save
this, the words we writ and utter as to the human condition, preserved by those
who believed in us, are the most precious gifts we can offer future
generations, and thus, such as it is with this tale….
It seems that several months after the Bard’s death, his
plays have been scattered as so much seed being blown about randomly by the
wind. His words misconstrued, scenes
missing and whole sections rewritten.
And so, it is up to a few of his most loyal companions, Heminges
(Jeffrey King), and his wife Rebecca (Kate Mulligan) and daughter, Alice (Kate
Hurster), Condell (David Kelly) and his wife, Elizabeth (Catherine Castellanos)
and, for a time, Richard Burbage (Kevin Kenerly), the lead actor of this acting
troupe, The King’s Men, to put right what is being torn asunder. And so, amongst much drink and little money,
they attempt the impossible.
How to assemble such a feat, with bits and pieces strewn
here and there. But, where there’s a
“Will,” there’s a way. They find Crane
(Cristofer Jean), a lover of his words, who has his own secret stash. Then there is the matter of printing it all,
which involves, perhaps, hiring the self-same printer, the blind, William (Kenerly,
again) and his son, Isaac (Jordan Barbour), who had pirated much of the Bard’s
work in the first place. And then
financing must be secured to finish such a massive undertaking, and so they
seek out the “Dark Lady (Castellanos, again),” now a published poet, the Muse
of Will’s Sonnets, and his admirer and rival, Ben Jonson (Daniel T. Parker), a
rather famous author in his own right.
After some false starts, a couple of deaths of important
members, doubts and bitter conflicts, they trudge ahead to preserve, perhaps
the greatest writer the world has known.
It is a trek, inspired by love and loyalty, which will raise high the
flag of friendship and will forever seal beauty on the written page and stage.
This is an epic story by Gunderson and one little known to
the general public. And so, bringing it
to light, is a monumental task and one that deserves being extended into two or
three parts, rather than trying to condense it into a
couple hour show. What is there is
terrific but I feel it needs to be expanded to show the full force of this tale
and Gunderson’s loving treatment of it and its characters.
Moore has done a first-rate job of keeping the story
coherent and staging it in a sparse setting so that the plot and characters
take center stage. The cast is quite
impressive in this show (as they always are at OSF) “…and each [person], in
[their] time, plays many parts.” It is
truly an amazing story.
I recommend this play.
If you do see it, tell them Dennis sent you.
--DJS
No comments:
Post a Comment