Hub’s ‘The Book of Will’: Saving Mr. Shakespeare

By Rich Fahey

BOSTON – Will’s legacy is in deep trouble.

Just a few years after his death in 1616, the immortal works of William Shakespeare are being bent, folded, spindled and mutilated.

And, in some cases, lost, perhaps for all time. What to do? For some of Shakespeare’s closest friends, the answer is easy: Collect them all in one place. A book, preferably a bound edition of all of his works.

In Lauren Gunderson’s “The Book of Will,” now being performed through Nov. 12 by the Hub Theatre Company in the Plaza Theatre at the Boston Center for the Arts, Will’s friends find there’s many a slip ‘twixt the cup and the lip. But they forge on, through personal tragedies, financial woes, and everything that life can throw at them, in a quest for the sacred First Folio.

What follows is an adventure steeped in heart and humor, well-told by a fine cast and director.  

In 1619, Will’s works are being ripped off at will, and in a pub three friends and colleagues of Shakespeare, also members of the King’s Men theater company – Henry Condell (Cleveland Nicoll), Richard Burbage (Dev Luthra) and John Heminges (Brendan O’Neill) – are being served by John’s daughter Alice (Lauren Elias) at the Globe Theatre alehouse. They are aghast at what is being performed in the playwright’s name.

They have an encounter with several of those younger actors taking Will’s name in vain and the young actors mocks the stuttering Burbage, who feels obligated to defend his honor by effortlessly performing a series of The Bard’s most famous passages. Then Alice sternly sends them on their way.

The next morning, Condell runs into the alehouse to announce breathlessly that Burbage has died. And taken with him an extensive knowledge of Shakespeare’s works, many of them lost or in danger of being lost.

Burbage’s funeral brings together not only the King’s Men and their families, but stage manager Ed Knight (Jeremy Beazlie), script editor Ralph Crane (John Telepman), and national poet laureate Ben Jonson (John Blair). Heminges finds himself unable to give the eulogy, leaving it to Condell and Jonson, Shakespeare’s contemporary.

A group gathers at the Globe ale-house after the funeral, and late in the night John, Henry and Alice decide that with much of Will’s work dying with Burbage, their only choice is to find Will’s remaining written works, collect them, and publish a  book of a collection of the Bard’s plays  for the public. John is skeptical but agrees to consider it.

Things get off to a rocky start when the group realizes that The Globe’s store of Shakespeare’s written work went up in smoke in a past fire, caused by a cannon going off in “Henry VIII.” Other sources must be found; Crane has copies of many works, a treasure trove he contributes to the cause and is named editor of the new book.

Gunderson makes it a point to show that behind the efforts of the men involved, there were women to support and encourage their husbands’ careers in every way possible – including selling fruits and nuts to theater-goers. Elias’s Alice Heminges, the sole surviving child of her parents, is integral in the mission to save Shakespeare and is a rock of support for John, as is his loving wife Rebecca (Laura Rocklyn),

Gunderson also finds a way to recognize a woman ahead of her time; Rebecca and Elizabeth Condell (Jessica Golden) speak excitedly of the lady poet Emilia Bassano Lanier, Will’s  mistress, who has dared to become a writer herself.  Lanier, played by Elias in a dual role, will later play an important part in saving Shakespeare.

O’Neill’s portrayal of John Heminges, the former actor who has abandoned the stage to be the manager of the famed Globe Theatre, is the foundation upon which all else rests.  

Heminges finds himself distraught and in despair after the death of his wife and finds the only place he can get relief is his beloved Globe Theatre, It is there, at the urging of Condell and Alice, he finds the strength to forge on in the effort to both save Shakespeare – and himself.

John Blair captures the spirit of the national poet laureate Ben Jonson, Shakespeare’s combative friend and competitor in many ways, and portrays his incessant drinking and womanizing without going so far as to lose the character completely.

It appears the quest for the First Folio may be over when the only way forward is to strike an alliance with their arch-enemy, publisher William Jaggard (Luthra in a dual role), who has also been cheating The Bard, and his son Isaac (Beazlie in a dual role). Jonson helps put a stop to Jaggard’s pirating, but in the end, he is the only printer with the capacity to make the book.

Will the alliance hold together, even as Condell’s beloved Pericles gets the ax from the final edition? Can the group get to the finish line before their collective will and the money run out?

It becomes an exciting race to the finish, with many twists and turns before the aforementioned cup meets the lip.

Director Bryn Boice helmed last year’s acclaimed Hub production of “Into the Breeches!” and her fingerprints are all over this work, especially when it comes to helping her cast capture the larger-than-life characters.   

Hub has made it a point to continually update and enhance its production values through the years. Kudos to Peyton Tavares’s set design, costumes and wigs by Ellie De Lucia, Talia Elise’s lighting, Ted Kearman’s sound, Elektra T.  Newman’s properties, and Thomas Cappelli’s technical direction.

Hub also remains the only theater company in Boston with a pay what you can policy for each ticket for each show.

“The Book of Will” is educational, entertaining, well-staged, acted and directed.

The Hub Theatre Company production of “the Book of Will.” Written by Lauren Gunderson, Directed by Bryn Boice. At the Plaza Theatre of the Boston Center for the Arts through Nov. 12. Hubtheatreboston.org