We recently noticed an article in The Stranger, a Seattle newspaper, about a new play about William Shakespeare (1).  Equivocation by the Jesuit Father Bill Cain premiered this year at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival.  The description sounds fascinating, let’s hope it comes to a stage in Sydney, too! 

The play involves William Shakespeare, Guy Fawkes, Catholic oppression under James I, and a wicked spymaster whose descendants are still powerful in Britain’s Conservative Party.  This wicked spymaster is Robert Cecil, 1st Earl of Salisbury, serving as Secretary of State both Elizabeth I and James I (2).

The play begins with Cecil summoning Shakespeare or  “Shag” as he is called in the play (short for “Shagspeare”) to commission a play, or a  “true history”,  about the Gunpowder Plot, when Catholic terrorists planned to blow up Parliament.  Analogies with more recent events are intended, Cain came the idea for the play when watching the attacks on the World Trade Centre (3) and his Cecil is a mixture of Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney. 

The Stranger quotes a little exchange about Richard III which we liked particularly:

By way of making conversation, he [Cecil]  upbraids Shag for writing Richard III as a villain. “He was a murderer,” Shag protests. “They’re all murderers!” Cecil shoots back. “He balanced the budget. People have no idea…”

The play apparently contains many Shakespeare in-jokes, and it must be one of them to portray Cecil with a serious limp (4) – no wonder he is so concerned about the negative representation of Richard in Shakespeare’s work! 

While we as Ricardians share his concerns about Shakespeare’s Richard,  our motivation is quite different to that of Cain’s Cecil.  However, he is right about Richard’s good economic management.

Notes:
(1) Brendan Kiley, “Mystery Play – A Thriller About Shakespeare and Bombs”.  The Stranger, 25 November 2009.
(2) “Robert Cecil, 1st Earl of Salisbury”.  Wikipedia. Retrieved 28 November 2009.
(3) “Shakespeare, terror and Bill Cain’s ‘Equivocation’”.  Los Angeles Times, 14 November 2009. 
(4) “Robert Cecil”

Tags: Richard III, Theatre