“The Book of Will”: the creation of the definitive collection of Shakespeare’s plays

The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey has long presented the classic works of its namesake playwright, William Shakespeare, as well as plays about him, such as Shakespeare in Love. But there are stories behind the plays of Shakespeare, especially the way they were collected and published. That story has now been brought to life on stage in Lauren Gunderson’s The Book of Will, directed by Artistic Director Emerita Bonnie J. Monte.

The play starts shortly after Shakespeare’s death. His plays have proven so popular that flawed versions of them, filling in forgotten dialog with achingly bad writing, start to appear. Commiserating in a local pub over a butchered production of Hamlet, actors Richard Burbage, Henry Condell, and John Heminges worry that the glorious plays of their friend Will will be lost to history. Then Burbage’s death spurs Condell and Heminges to action.

The challenges seem insurmountable. They need to collect scripts as best they can, piecing together prompt books, sides, and their own recollections to come up with true, full copies of the plays. They also need to decide which plays with Shakespeare’s name attached are truly his works, obtain the publishing rights to several plays, convince patrons to invest, choose paper stock and book styles, and handle a million and one small details. And do all this while trying to support themselves and their families until the first copy can be sold.

The actors, under Monte’s direction, are marvelous, many playing multiple parts. Michael Stewart Allen is a driving spirit as Condell, the more optimistic of the team; he is balanced by the pessimistic realist of Anthony Marble’s Heminges. Brent Harris is the bombastic Burbage, the first actor to play Hamlet, Othello, Macbeth, and many of Shakespeare’s tragic heroes and kings. Harris also plays the wily, crooked printer William Jaggard, offering a “favorable” deal exchanging rights to several of the major plays for the publishing contract for the First Folio.

Isaac Hickox-Young is impressive as Isaac Jaggard, William’s son and de facto publisher of the First Folio, striking romantic sparks with Alice Heminges, John’s daughter, played by Carolyne Leys, who also plays Susannah, Shakespeare’s daughter. Pearce Bunting’s Ben Jonson, Shakespeare’s friend and rival playwright, is a lecherous, drunken, venom-spewing delight. Amy Hutchins ably handles the supportive Elizabeth Condell and the Dark Lady of the Sonnets, Lady Emilia Bassano Lanier. Victoria Mack brings a touch of quiet pride to both Rebecca Heminges and Anne Hathaway, Shakespeare’s widow.

The Book of Will is the kind of a play where you are kept enthralled by the number of roadblocks and difficulties that had to be overcome, any one of which would have sabotaged the creation of the First Folio. Lauren Gunderson’s script not only works at turning the spotlight on a near-forgotten bit of theatrical history but also at providing a human story of love and devotion not only to William Shakespeare but to theatre.

I strongly recommend heading to the F.M. Kirby Shakespeare Theatre at Drew University to see The Book of Will before its limited engagement ends.

The Book of Will is presented by the Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey at the F.M. Kirby Shakespeare Theatre on the campus of Drew University in Madison though July 28, 2024.  For more information, or to purchase tickets, go to shakespearenj.org or call 973-408-5600.