AVERY BRUNKUS
From left, Pearce Bunting, Anthony Marble and Carolyne Leys co-star in The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey’s production of “The Book of Will.”
It is 1619 — three years after William Shakespeare’s death — and his “Hamlet” is being performed at a London theater.
“To be or not to be … Aye, there’s the point,” says the actor playing the title character.
His friends are horrified: Even then, they recognized the timeless brilliance of his writing, and believed his words should not be tampered with. But what can they do? It’s not like there was a book that would preserve “Hamlet,” and “King Lear,” and everything else, forever.
But what if there was?
Thus begins “The Book of Will,” Lauren Gunderson’s 2017 play, which is currently being produced by The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey. The rest of the play basically represents these friends’ uphill battle to get that task done.
This is not a grand Shakespearean tale of kings and queens, or historic battles, or star-crossed lovers. It is a play about getting a book published. But it is full of colorful characters, sharp literary jokes — including a good running gag about the much-maligned Shakespeare play “Pericles” — and unexpected twists. It has plenty of laugh-out-loud moments, but is ultimately quite gripping, and delivers an important message about taking a stand, and persevering in the face of difficulties. (As we know — no spoiler alert necessary — this endeavor ended in success: The plays were published under the title “Mr. William Shakespeare’s Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies” in 1623, and the book came to be known as the “First Folio.”)
The “will” in the play’s title doesn’t just refer to Shakespeare. It also suggests the huge amount of will it took these characters to find all the necessary texts, and get the rights to them, and make the project work financially, etc. As we learn, books were rare at this time, and very expensive to produce. And it wasn’t like there was a huge amount of money to be made from them. As one character says, “Half the country can’t read, the other half can’t pay.”
AVERY BRUNKUS
Carolyne Leys and Brent Harris in “The Book of Will.”
STNJ’s former artistic director, Bonnie J. Monte, returns for the first time since leaving that position (after the 2023 season) to direct the production, and many of the actors have been seen on the STNJ stage quite a few times before. And they are universally formidable, here.
This may be a modest story, but it still has some marvelously larger-than-life characters, including the star actor Richard Burbage (played by Brent Harris, spewing fiery indignation at “those pillagers of wit and charlatans of heart” who are ruining Shakespeare’s plays) and the prominent poet and playwright Ben Jonson (portrayed as a Falstaffian rascal by Pearce Bunting). It is a pair of everyman heroes, though, the dreamer Henry Condell (Michael Stewart Allen) and the more practical and prone-to-worry John Heminges (Anthony Marble), who get most of the work done.
Both used to act with Shakespeare, though Heminges left the stage to become financial manager of their troupe, The King’s Men. They are intimately acquainted with Shakespeare’s work, and know what is at stake. As do we.
They receive loving support from their wives Rebecca Heminges (Victoria Mack) and Elizabeth Condell (Amy Hutchins) and the Hemingeses’ daughter Alice (Carolyne Leys). Other characters in the somewhat large cast (15 actors play more than 30 characters) include Shakespeare’s widow Anne Hathaway (also played by Mack) and his mistress Emilia Bassano Lanier (also played by Hutchins), crusty publisher William Jaggard (also played by Harris), and Jaggard’s idealistic son Isaac (Isaac Hickox-Young), who provides a love interest for Alice, through their relationship does not progress beyond flirting.
AVERY BRUNKUS
Amy Hutchins and Michael Stewart Allen in “The Book of Will.”
Given how little is definitively known about all these people, it feels like a stretch to call this a historical play. It is more like a fantasy about what might have happened. But it is grounded in reality, quite nicely, by the frequent references to Shakespeare’s plays and sonnets, and the reading of the introductory poem that Jonson wrote for the First Folio, and the heartfelt preface that Condell and Heminges co-wrote.
“Read (Shakespeare), therefore; and again, and again,” they wrote, at the end of this mini-essay. “And if then you do not like him, surely you are in some manifest danger, not to understand him.”
Similarly, it is hard to imagine this “Book of Will” not being enjoyed by any serious fan of Shakespeare. Or theater in general.
The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey will present “The Book of Will” at its F.M. Kirby Shakespeare Theatre at Drew University in Madison through July 28. Visit shakespearenj.org.
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