Nearly every summer for 20 years, Ten Bucks Theatre Company has performed one of William Shakespeare’s plays outside, under the stars. So, it’s about time the group told the story of how the Bard’s plays came to be published seven years after his death in the First Folio.
“The Book of Will,” being performed Thursday through Saturday at the company’s Bangor Mall space, is about how Henry Condell and John Heminges pulled together 36 of Shakespeare’s plays and had them published in one volume in 1623, the first time a collection of plays was published in England. Half of the plays, including “Macbeth,” “The Taming of the Shrew,” “The Tempest,” “As You Like It” and “Twelfth Night,” had never been published before, according to the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C.
This production, directed by Deanna Rice, is a love letter not only to Shakespeare and his work, but to the joys and sorrows that actors experience in bringing an author’s words to life. Ten Bucks takes theatergoers into the lives of the men who were part of Shakespeare’s performing troupe known as the King’s Men in this funny and touching story.
The play also highlights the role of their wives and children in gathering the manuscripts, finding the money to pay for printing and making sure the plays were the real deal and not written by hacks using Shakespeare’s name.
Playwright Lauren Gunderson, known for plays about people sometimes overlooked in history, especially women, wrote it for the Denver Center for the Performing Arts. It premiered in 2017.
Gunderson was tied for first in a list by American Theatre magazine of the most-produced playwrights in the 2022-2023 season, excluding Shakespeare, with 24 plays.
As Condell, Jared Roxby was delightfully charming. Although this is his first Ten Bucks production, the actor fit right in with the ensemble cast. Roxby, who moved to Bangor in 2019 and owns a local gym, is a fine and welcome addition to the company, which is often in need of actors familiar and comfortable with Shakespeare’s language.
Ron Lisnet recently took over the role of Heminges after the actor cast could not continue in the role. Despite the fact that Lisnet was carrying the script during Sunday’s matinee, he created a believable character determined to make sure his friend’s work would not be lost.
Lisnet’s unexpected turn in the role was quite poignant, in part because his wife, Julie Arnold Lisnet, played Heminges wife, Rebecca, and their daughter, Natalie Lisnet, played Alice Heminges, the couple’s daughter. The fact that they are a family made their scenes as a family ring true. Natalie Lisnet was especially moving in Alice’s speech about how much Shakespeare’s strong women mean to her, even though she most likely never saw a woman play those parts since it was illegal for women to be on Elizabethan stages.
Richard Burbage (Ben Layman) was a friend and sometime rival of Shakespeare’s. He’s in the opening scene then walks off stage to die. Layman gives a bullish performance full of bluster and passion. It is an unforgettable cameo by one of Ten Bucks’ most versatile players of Shakespeare.
Alex Kearns’ performance as Ben Jonson, another friend and rival who wrote an introduction to the folio, was disappointing. While he was loud enough, much of his dialogue could not be understood because he did not enunciate enough. Even though Jonson is drunk and drinking during Kearns’ scenes, the actor should be able to portray that and make the character’s words understood.
Some companies have had the same actor play Burbage and Jonson. For the sake of its audience, Ten Bucks should have done the same.
The rest of the cast, playing supporting roles, was fine with Joe Fisher a standout as the reviled publisher William Jaggard, whose son eventually gets the plays printed and bound.
Technically, “The Book of Will” was one of the company’s best shows. The set and lighting by Elliott Wilcox brought the audience into the pub where much of the action takes place. It was a warm and welcoming place to spend two hours, although the pace of the play is slowed down by very slow scene changes. Jennifer Snow’s costumes are simple yet elegant and took the audience to the 17th century.
Ten Bucks has moved up the start of its evening shows from 7 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. so that everyone is out of the mall by 9 p.m. as required by management.
Theatergoers who look forward to Ten Bucks’ Shakespeare Under the Stars every summer shouldn’t miss “The Book of Will.”
“The Book of Will” will be performed at 6:30 p.m. Thursday through Saturday and at 1 p.m. Saturday in the Bangor Mall, near the former Sears building.
