By Michael Sommers for The New York Times, 24 September 2015
Shakespeare in love? How about Shakespeare in a jam?
That is the scenario in “Equivocation,” a dark, thoughtful comedy by Bill Cain that is currently enjoying its Garden State premiere at the Shakespeare Theater of New Jersey in Madison.
It is 1606, and Shakespeare — here called Shag; short for Shagspeare — has been commissioned by King James I to dramatize the “true history” of The Gunpowder Plot, an actual episode that saw a band of Catholic nobles conspire in 1605 to blow up the English Parliament and kill King James.
Just before the massacre was set to occur, an anonymous letter tipped off the authorities to kegs of gunpowder hidden in a cellar. The perpetrators were soon seized, tortured, tried and executed.
Shag, who is bedeviled with rehearsals for “King Lear,” is none too thrilled by the king’s request. But Shag’s bickering colleagues at the Globe Theater are enthusiastic about its moneymaking potential. They then begin to doubt the veracity of the official story.
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