Playwright Bill Cain has a lot on his mind with the brilliant "Equivocation," which opened Saturday at the B Street Theatre.
The clever and often funny production makes Cain's ideas a dramatic, emotionally fulfilling thriller. Set in 1606 London, the thrust of the moody plot is a commission offered to the popular playwright William Shagspeare (the spelling of Shakespeare preferred by Cain) by King James I.
The commission comes to Will, as he is called, through Sir Robert Cecil, the king's all-powerful adviser. Cecil and the king want a play written about a recently foiled attempt to assassinate the king. Naturally, they want the story written from the king's point of view. Cecil gives Will a manuscript on which to base the play. The king would also like witches in the story.
The official version of the plot has been questioned by some historians, who believe it couldn't have happened as reported. (Imagine Dick Cheney inviting Aaron Sorkin to the White House because President Bush wants a movie written validating the administration's rationale for invading Iraq.)
Will, effectively played by Remi Sandri, understands the job's impossible demands: He doesn't want to lie and he doesn't want to die.
Will also has a difficult relationship with daughter Judith. She is the twin of dead son Hamnet, whom her father preferred. While Will is his own artistic conscience, Brittni Barger's moving, subtle Judith is his emotional conscience.
As Will begins researching the plot and interviewing conspirators, he has more questions than answers. Being held is Father Henry Garnet, a Jesuit priest who has written "A Treatise of Equivocation." Matt K. Miller's forceful Garnet adds more doubt to Will's sense of the truth and his mission. Garnet advises Will: "If a dishonest man has formed the question, there will be no honest answer."
Miller also plays Richard, theater company boss and Will's oldest friend.
Rounding out the company are James Leo Ryan as the actor Sharpe and John Lamb as Armin, keeper of the scripts. Several of the versatile actors play multiple parts, with Johnson also playing company actor Nate, Ryan playing the king, and Lamb as prosecutor Sir Edward Coke.
Catherine Frye has designed an efficient, multilevel set. Laura Baker's clean, unaffected direction smartly presents the story, and the actors move quickly through shifting scenes.
"Equivocation" is a seriously enjoyable theater banquet reflecting history through the present and the political through the personal.
EQUIVOCATION
4 stars
What: B Street Theatre B3 Series production
When: 7 p.m. Tuesdays-Fridays and 8 p.m. Saturdays, through June 19. Call box office for selected matinees.
Where: B Street Theatre, 2711 B Street
Information: (916) 443-5300 or www.bstreettheatre.org
Tickets: $18-$30; $5 student rush
Time: 2 hours and 30 minutes, including one intermission.
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