Equivocation

Equivocation is a play based on the premise that James I asked William Shakespeare (known as “Shag”, short for Shagspeare, in this) to write a play based on recent current events…the events in question being the gunpowder plot. It’s been around for a few years and is now in a New Zealand production at the Circa Theatre, one of Wellington’s smaller theatres.

We toddled along. It’s a long play, so they start at 6:30 in order to finish at a reasonable time. Instead of dining out as usual, we decided to go to the Circa’s in-house restaurant, Encore, for a quick dinner before the 6:30 start. I’ve had a bit of a downer on Encore – I didn’t think much to it last time we went there – but I think it’s improved a little since then. There was nothing wrong with my tarakihi, and they were pretty prompt in bringing it, so we weren’t rushed.

The play was performed on a bare stage with very few props – a desk, a barrel/stool, a couple of other items. It’s also staged so that it moves seamlessly from the actors in Shag’s company being in real life and performing in rehearsals, or acting out drafts as Shag writes them. Shag’s daughter, Judith, provides criticism and counterpoint to the  protagonists, at one point delivering a soliloquy about how she hates soliloquies. Very meta. The 6 actors play a multitude of parts from Shag’s company through to the king, many of the plotters, and other characters.

The king and his minion, Sir Robert Cecil, keep interfering in the creative process – the king in particular insisting on having witches in the play. Meanwhile, Shag is doubting whether it’s a good idea to do current events, the credibility of the plot, and toying with the concept of doing a play about what would happen if the plot had succeeded.  The problem with this is that he’ll be doing a play for a king, in front of a king, in which the king dies…not a good look, career-wise.  

Eventually Shag decides to set it in Scotland, and make it very allegorical. You can probably guess the rest. The king loves it, because it contains witches. Sir Robert loves it, because he gets it. Shag’s company loves it, because they don’t get sent to The Tower. And even Judith likes it (she’s not always been a fan of his earlier work).

Oh yeah, we loved it too.