ZUT ALORS! SHAKESPEARE HAS BEEN DEAD THREE YEARS AND FIENDISH SCAMMERS ARE USING THE NEWLY INVENTED PRINTING PRESS TO CREATE VOLUMES OF BOGUS SHAKESPEARE PLAYS

By Chuck Graham, TucsonStage.com

 

photo by Tim Fuller

The devil is in the details of this freshly printed volume, and these cast members are determined to keep every volume of Shakespeare plays as pure and unadulterated as when the Bard wrote them.

Here's the chance to brush up on your Shakespeare and also get a history lesson at the same time. Take in the Scoundrel & Scamp Theatre's fun-loving and deeply detailed production of “The Book of Will” by popular playwright Lauren Gunderson.

We begin three years after the Bard has passed on. His fame is not fading, however. Quite the opposite. Every actor and his brother is claiming to have an authentic Shakespeare play or two in his possession. Many of them written by someone else.

For those well-established and prolific playwrights, the recent invention of the printing press made possible an entirely new marketing strategy: such as being first to offer the public an authentic collection of Shakespeare's greatest hits.

There being no authentically authorized board to judge which is the real Shakespeare and which is the mock, it was the playwright's own acting company, the King's Men, who stepped forward, seizing the opportunity as those closest to the man who wrote the plays the whole world wanted to see.

The immediate brilliance of Gunderson was (first) to write the play using modern colloquial English and (second) having actors skip the formality of adapting proper British accents.

Instead, Gunderson and S&S director Bryan Rafael Falcon use the deliberately hammy mannerisms we humorously associate with overblown Shakespearean posers. You know the ones.

Lest anyone be confused, well into the second act as conditions get tight for all the King's Men, some genuinely exemplary acting is provided by Dennis O'Dell (as John Hemings). Nathan Taylor (as Henry Condell) and Steve McKee (as William Jaggard).

Gunderson also adds immediacy to the situation by having the players use marketing terms from modern times that we understand to explain today's boffo box office successes.

Scoundrel & Scamp has pulled out its own stops in going full bore to create an exceptionally spacious authentic stage set (designed by Falcon and Raulie Martinez), as well as elaborate costumes designed by Falcon and Elizabeth Falcon.

My personal favorite quality is the way Gunderson blends into the colorful dialogue an endless steam of familiar quotes from the entire panoply of Shakespeare's collected works. It's spectator fun to catch and recognize them.

We also learn that spelling was never considered too important until the printing press came along using the official King's English, and also creating such timeless phrases as “minding your p's and q's.”

One last tip, although S&S is recommending “The Book of Will” for ages 12 and up, some of the language is rather harsh.

The production runs through March 17, with performances Thursdays through Saturdays at 7:30 p.m., Sunday matinees at 2 p.m., in the Scoundrel & Scamp Theatre of the Historic Y, 738 N. Fifth Ave. General admission tickets are $35 at the door, $30 in advance. Other discounts are also available.

For details and online reservations, visit scoundrelandscamp.org, or phone 520-448-3300.