Photo credit: Ross Zentner
Next Act Theatre, whose maxim is “Intimate. Powerful.” has a well-earned reputation for socially conscious theater. In its latest offering, Bill Cain’s Equivocation, we find an engrossing examination of 400-year-old art and politics bearing striking resemblance to our own milieu. The characters? William Shakespeare, his daughter, The King’s Men theater company, the men associated with the infamous Gunpowder Plot, King James I and the commanding statesman Sir Robert Cecil. The setting? 1606 London, religiously and socially polarized in the aftermath of the foiled Gunpowder Plot, which, if successful, would have destroyed the Houses of Parliament and killed the king.
Cain's script is brilliant for its fictional, yet entirely plausible, inquiry into what might have happened had Cecil, the King’s “beagle” and Secretary of State, commissioned Shakespeare to write “the official history” (read: propaganda) of the Gunpowder Plot. The bard is forced to choose between the self-betrayal of relaying “alternative facts,” telling the truth and paying with his life and the lives of his company members, or rejecting the lucrative commission that Cecil says would cement his place in history.
The witty yet accessible dialogue, liberally sprinkled with excerpts from Shakespeare’s plays, is riveting from curtain to curtain. Clever double-castings abound, supported by wise and sometimes hilarious theatrical devices, such as the literal switching of hats or crowns mid-scene to indicate shifts in character.
In the hands of director Michael Cotey and an impressive cast of Milwaukee favorites, the story comes to vibrant life. Mark Ulrich’s “Shag” is a worthy protagonist, believably juggling desire for truth and redemption with the desire to survive, thrive and be remembered. As his daughter Judith, Eva Nimmer brings dark humor and heart to the story. Josh Krause’s King James I is as irreverent, arrogant and unrepentant as his Gunpowder conspirator, Thomas Wintour, is traumatized, tragic and resolute. As both principal King’s Men actor Richard Burbage and Father Garnet (the Jesuit priest implicated in the plot), Jonathan Smoots is quietly captivating. T. Stacy Hicks plays a handful of supporting characters, all endowed with a high, clown-like energy that makes him a joy to watch in every scene. Finally, Next Act artistic director David Cecsarini’s primary role as Cecil makes a chilling antagonist: rational, ruthless and the greatest tactician of his time, he is a formidable threat to Shakespeare’s “cooperative venture based on affection.”
Stay on top of the news of the day
Subscribe to our free, daily e-newsletter to get Milwaukee's latest local news, restaurants, music, arts and entertainment and events delivered right to your inbox every weekday, plus a bonus Week in Review email on Saturdays.
At the heart of this production is the concept of equivocation, which Father Garnet defines as “answering the question under the question, with your life.” Through this idea, we see the ways in which artists have always striven to “tell the truth in difficult times” as well as an acute examination of the psychology of torturers and tortured, and a treatise on the nature of truth itself.
Through Feb. 25 at Next Act Theatre 255 S. Water St. For tickets, call 414-278-0765 or visit nextact.org.
