skygiants | (no subject)

I'm home in Philadelphia for Thanksgiving, and my dad suggested that we all go and see Equivocation at the Arden Theater. If you happen to be in the area: WORTH THE PRICE.

Equivocation posits a hypothetical in which Robert Cecil, Secretary of State to James I, commissions Shakespeare to write a "true history" play of the Gunpowder Plot.

SHAKESPEARE: I don't write propaganda stories.
CECIL: You wrote Richard III! You made Richard of York a hunchback!
SHAKESPEARE: He was a murderer!
CECIL: They're all murderers! He balanced the budget.

In his attempt to turn the Crown's version of events into a coherent and semi-truthful play without getting executed for it --

SHAKESPEARE: A group of men plan to blow up Parliament, and then they don't. There's no plot!
CECIL: It is TREASON to say that there was no plot!
SHAKESPEARE: ...
CECIL: .... ohhhh, you mean there's no plot!

-- Shakespeare goes hunting for the actual truth about what happened during the Gunpowder Plot, along the way confronting interpersonal conflicts among his actors, questions of morality and politics and posterity, and his own stoppered-up emotions about the death of his son Hamnet. Judith Shakespeare, Hamnet's cranky and neglected twin, who keeps track of the number of deaths in Shakespeare's plays and has VERY strong feelings about soliloquies (she hates them) plays a major role. She's the one woman in the production, but she has a lot to say; Shakespeare's relationship with her is either the heart of the story or very close to it.

Richard Burbage also plays a major role. He has a passionate scene in which he confesses that Shakespeare means more to him than anything in the world, and then he strides forward and clutches Shakespeare's face and the fact that they don't actually make out at that point surprised me more than just about anything else in the play. It could just be that Richard was probably the best actor in the cast; he doubled as an incredibly powerful Henry Garnet, a historical figure about whom I previously knew nothing, so it's really quite unfair that I'm now extremely sad about him. James I, who doubles as hotheaded young actor Richard Sharpe, is also much more interesting than he initially appears (although his Scottish accent stays sadly terrible throughout the whole thing.) The cast of Shakespeare's company is rounded out by Nathan Field, who doubles as Cecil and does all his interesting acting there, and Robert Armin, who doesn't really get to do anything interesting as far as I recall except a brief scene in which he doubles as Buckingham in order to bang King James.

The playwright is clearly very pleased with himself for the opportunity to play around with plays within plays -- Shakespeare goes through multiple (intermittently terrible and/or treasonous) drafts of the Gunpowder Plot play, many of them performed with/during/around his interviews with the participants -- and somehow manages to turn the line "Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow" delivered exactly as per Macbeth's script into one of the best brick jokes in the entire show.

It's not a perfect play; it's very clever and very pleased with its own metatextuality and it's probably got too much crammed into it, but this is one of those cases where the flaws probably make it more fun for me, specifically. (Except some unnecessary slanders on the name of Anne Hathaway. RUDE.) But it gives me lots of what I like best, which is lengthy explorations of why people write things the way they do, and also getting to watch people watching shows and reacting to them in interesting ways. Anyway, it's all HIGHLY enjoyable and I would absolutely recommend.

Crossposts: http://bookelfe.livejournal.com/429628.html

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

sovay

and Robert Armin, who doesn't really get to do anything interesting as far as I recall except a brief scene in which he doubles as Buckingham in order to bang King James.

Alas for Armin himself, but otherwise +1.

From:

lilysea

Wow, that sounds like fun. I hope I get to see it one day.

Thank you for writing about it! ^_^

From:

starlady

Oh dang, I will just miss it! I really love the Arden in general.

From:

misbegotten

He balanced the budget.

OMG, I laughed and laughed at this.

From:

ambyr

That sounds like exactly the sort of play I would like! I am now very sad I don't have plans to be in Philadelphia over the next several weeks.

From:

nextian

IIIIIII LOOOOOOOVE THIS PLAYYYYYY. I saw it when it first debuted at Ashland and then again with a different, less subtle company in LA, and I would completely watch it again-- I remember when I watched it in 2009 I was too weirded out by how blatant the Cheney Discourse was in it to fully enjoy it the second time, but dang it's so much fun. "Telling the truth in difficult times."

From:

graycardinal

I saw the world-premiere production of Equivocation when it ran at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival [pause, count on fingers] about six years ago now, and it is definitely (a) absolutely fascinating, and (b) meta as H*ll. And the production script of that staging (which I bought at the time, and which is sitting on the desk here as I type) quite literally gives Judith the last word...well, actually, the last several words. The play has almost certainly been somewhat revised since, as the OSF script admits to having been printed while they were still in rehearsals, and this is the sort of play where the author keeps tinkering with it through the first two or three productions. But the ending as I have it here -- as Judith describes the last few plays of the Shakespearean canon -- I really quite like. (Among other things, it just goes to show that Yuletide did not invent the problem of Bears.)

From:

cinaed

This sounds really good! I'll have to keep an eye out for it in case it ever comes near DC. (Though boo about the slander for Anne Hathaway, how dare they.) The day before Thanksgiving I saw Pericles which is one of Shakespeare's uh odder plays? Definitely odd.

(Also 2015 seems to be my year for unexpected incest in media I watch/read/see this year, which is not a sentence I ever thought I'd write.)

From:

frayadjacent

I saw Equivocation in Seattle a few years ago and loved it. Thanks for the happy reminder! Glad you liked it too.

From:

evewithanapple

That sounds like a play I would either adore with all of my being or be deeply irritated by depending on how witty the playwright actually was. I laughed out loud at the "plot" pun, though, so probably I would lean more towards enjoying it.