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Equivocation is a 2009 play by Bill Cain that premiered at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. It takes place in an alternate history in 17th Century England where Robert Cecil commissions William Shakespeare (referred to as Shagspeare) to write an official history play about the Gunpowder Plot to assassinate King James I.
London. 1605. A room. Sir Robert Cecil has called for Master William Shagspeare (Shag for short) to commission a play for King James. After reading what it is he should write about, Shag quickly rejects the offer, but is overpowered by Cecil and is forced to take the commission. The scene suddenly turns into one of Shag's plays as actors (Nate, Armin, Richard, and Sharpe) come out performing a scene from King Lear, which Sharpe claims is unplayable. Shag breaks up the argument and tells them how Cecil called upon him, and how he has been commissioned to write a true history of the Gunpowder Plot. Shag tells them he's wary, since current events have never been done on the stage, but his actors claim he's "the man for the job". With that, Shag begins to write.
Enter Judith, Shag's daughter, who looks at the darker aspects of life. After asking him how many people he's killed off in his new play, she gives him clothing to go change into. There is obvious tension between the two. While Shag changes off stage, Judith gives a soliloquy to the audience about how she hates both plays and soliloquies. Shag reenters, scolding her for messing with his work. Shag asks Judith how her twin brother is doing, and she reminds him that her brother is dead. She tells him to ask about her, in which he replies, "You're always the same." When Judith exits Shag's work comes to life. A scene unfolds, in Shakespearean tongue, of three conspirators (played by Nate, Richard, and Sharpe) meeting with the Jesuit priest Henry Garnet (played by Armin) about how they plan on blowing up Parliament. After playing out the whole scene all the actors and Shag, with the exception of Sharpe, agree that it just doesn't work. Sharpe then suggests that they change the ending and blow up Parliament, and is immediately berated by Richard about how it is a terrible idea to put on a play about blowing up a king in the presence of the king. Nate and Armin mention how they don't understand how thirteen gentlemen could go about digging a tunnel under Parliament without getting caught, which gets Shag thinking.
Shag makes a trip back to see Cecil, who is annoyed that Shag has yet to finish the play. Shag tells Cecil he wants to know about the dirt ("Dirt? What dirt?"), which Cecil refuses to tell him of. After arguing some more, Shag tells Cecil how there is (in the story) no plot, to which Cecil, outraged, replies, "It is treason to say so!" When Shag says how he was just giving literary criticism, Cecil realizes his misunderstanding and acts like he said nothing. Shag also apologizes to Cecil for portraying Cecil's father as Polonius in Hamlet. He then asks to interview Thomas Wintour, a conspirator in the Gunpowder Plot. Cecil agrees. The next scene unfolds to show Wintour being suspended, with guards telling him how exactly he's going to be executed. Shag meets with Wintour, who at first refuses to speak with him. Shag is about to leave but when he sees how Wintour can't even write a letter to his wife because his hands are so damaged, Shag agrees to write Wintour's wife a letter if Wintour helps him. Wintour tells Shag of how Robert Catesby called a meeting to first start the plot. Catesby tells Wintour how Cecil gave him the gunpowder, supposedly for a military expedition on the continent. He also tells him of a room underneath Parliament where the deed can be done. Astonished, Shag asks Wintour about Garnet's role in this. Wintour informs him how Garnet was never in on the plan. Wintour, Catesby, and the other conspirators turn back into Shag's actors, who are just as astonished by the new play as Shag is. Richard tells them they can't do the show because it is far too dangerous to perform, but Shag insists. Richard realizes why Shag wants to do this so badly and tells Shag, "Helping someone else's son won't bring back yours."
Cecil then arrives at the Globe, wanting a word with Shag. He tells Shag how he has gotten his hands on a copy of the new script and does not deem it worthy to be performed. When Shag asks how he got a copy, Cecil insinuates there might be one or more moles in his theatre company. He then takes the letter Wintour wrote to his wife away from Shag. Wintour's execution is announced. Shag begs for them to let him live, but Cecil will not comply. Wintour recites a poem before being hung, and then is cut down (while he is still alive), cut open, and then has his head cut off. At the final moments of the first act Cecil says, "Behold! The head of a traitor!" and holds up Wintour's severed head. Suddenly, the eyes of Wintour open and he whispers, "Thou liest." Blackout.
The second act starts in a courtroom at the trial of the Jesuit priest, Henry Garnet. Prosecutor Edward Coke asks Garnet if he knew the conspirators of the plot, which he denies, but he then affirms knowing Robert Catesby, Thomas Wintour, and all of the other accused except Guy Fawkes, explaining that he did not know them as conspirators. When Cecil challenges him to answer using plain "yes" and "no", he tells of a hypothetical scenario in which the King was seeking shelter from the Spanish in Coke's house, asking whether he would tell the Spanish the King was inside—betray the King or deliberately lie. Coke, trapped by Garnet's words, ends the trial and orders that Garnet be removed to his cell.
Later, Shag comes to Garnet's cell disguised as a jailor, which Garnet quickly sees through. He tells Garnet he has come to learn to equivocate—to tell the truth in his play without getting caught at it. Garnet gives him the same hypothetical scenario and asks him what the Spanish are really asking, but Shag can't figure it out.
The play was first produced at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in Ashland, Oregon. It premiered April 15, 2009, and closed on October 31, 2009.
Seattle Repertory Theatre in partnership with Oregon Shakespeare Festival presented the play in Seattle from 18 November through 13 December 2009. As in Ashland, it was directed by Bill Rauch with Anthony Heald, Christine Albright, Jonathan Haugen, Richard Elmore, John Tufts and Gregory Linington. [1] [2]
The play appeared at the New York City Center in March, 2010 with John Pankow, Charlotte Parry, Remy Auberjonois, Michael Countryman, David Furr and David Pittu. Garry Hynes directed. [3]
It was produced by the Circa Theatre, Wellington, New Zealand where it ran from 24 May to 21 June 2014. It was directed by Peter Hamilton and performed by Andrew Foster, Paul McLaughlin, Tom Eason, Jason Whyte, Gavin Rutherford and Tai Berdinner-Blades. At the time the Sheilah Winn National Shakespeare competition was being held, and student groups attending or competing were encouraged to attend the performance. [4] [5]
It has also been produced at Bard on the Beach Shakespeare Festival in Vancouver, Canada – being performed for a fixed run from July 2, 2014 to September 27, 2014.
The play was part of the 2014 season at Will Geer's Theatricum Botanicum in Topanga, California, with Ted Barton, Alan Blumenfeld, Dane Oliver, Franc Ross, Taylor Jackson Ross, and Paul Turbiak in Mike Peebler's production hailed by the Los Angeles Times as a "Critics' Choice." [6]
The play was produced as part of the 2015 season at the Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey, directed by Paul Mullins. Cast included James Michael Reilly (Shag), Rob Krakovski (Richard/Garnet), Kevin Isola (Armin and others), Matthew Stucky (Sharpe/Tom Wintour/James), Dominic Comperatore (Nate/Cecil), and Therese Barbato (Judith). [7]
The play was produced by the Atlanta Shakespeare Company on April 23-May 8, 2016 as part of its 2015-16 season with Artistic Director Jeff Watkins taking the role of William Shagspeare. [8]
Equivocation, though it has many roles, was never intended to have a large cast. The intention was always to have six actors. Because of this, four of the six actors are meant to carry the weight of the show by taking on ten or more roles each.
Guy Fawkes, also known as Guido Fawkes while fighting for the Spanish, was a member of a group of provincial English Catholics who was involved in the failed Gunpowder Plot of 1605. He was born and educated in York; his father died when Fawkes was eight years old, after which his mother married a recusant Catholic.
The Gunpowder Plot of 1605, in earlier centuries often called the Gunpowder Treason Plot or the Jesuit Treason, was a failed assassination attempt against King James I by a group of provincial English Catholics led by Robert Catesby who sought to restore the Catholic monarchy to England after decades of persecution against Catholics.
Robert Catesby was the supposed leader of a group of English Catholics who was accused of a conspiracy to destroy Parliament in 1605, known as the Gunpowder Plot.
Henry Garnet, sometimes Henry Garnett, was an English Jesuit priest executed for his complicity in the Gunpowder Plot of 1605. Born in Heanor, Derbyshire, he was educated in Nottingham and later at Winchester College before he moved to London in 1571 to work for a publisher. There he professed an interest in legal studies and in 1575, he travelled to the continent and joined the Society of Jesus. He was ordained in Rome some time around 1582.
Francis Tresham, eldest son of Thomas Tresham and Muriel Throckmorton, was a member of the group of English provincial Catholics who planned the failed Gunpowder Plot of 1605, a conspiracy to assassinate King James I of England.
The Bye Plot of 1603 was a conspiracy, by Roman Catholic priests and Puritans aiming at tolerance for their respective denominations, to kidnap the new English King, James I of England. It is referred to as the "bye" plot, because at the time it was presented as a minor component of a larger plot.
Robert Wintour and Thomas Wintour, also spelt Winter, were members of the Gunpowder Plot, a failed conspiracy to assassinate King James I. Brothers, they were related to other conspirators, such as their cousin, Robert Catesby, and a half-brother, John Wintour, also joined them following the plot's failure. Thomas was an intelligent and educated man, fluent in several languages and trained as a lawyer, but chose instead to become a soldier, fighting for England in the Low Countries, France, and possibly in Central Europe. By 1600, however, he changed his mind and became a fervent Catholic. On several occasions he travelled to the continent and entreated Spain on behalf of England's oppressed Catholics, and suggested that with Spanish support a Catholic rebellion was likely.
Ambrose Rookwood was a member of the failed 1605 Gunpowder Plot, a conspiracy to replace the Protestant King James I with a Catholic sovereign. Rookwood was born into a wealthy family of Catholic recusants, and educated by Jesuits in Flanders. His older brother became a Franciscan, and his two younger brothers were ordained as Catholic priests. Rookwood became a horse-breeder. He married the Catholic Elizabeth Tyrwhitt, and had at least two sons.
Sir Everard Digby was a member of the group of provincial English Catholics who planned the failed Gunpowder Plot of 1605. Although he was raised in a Protestant household, and married a Protestant, Digby and his wife were converted to Catholicism by the Jesuit priest John Gerard. In the autumn of 1605, he was part of a Catholic pilgrimage to the shrine of St Winefride's Well in Holywell. About this time, he met Robert Catesby, a religious fanatic who planned to blow up the House of Lords with gunpowder, killing James I. Catesby then planned to incite a popular revolt, during which a Catholic monarch would be restored to the English throne.
Thomas Percy was a member of the group of provincial English Catholics who planned the failed Gunpowder Plot of 1605. A tall, physically impressive man, little is known of his early life beyond his matriculation in 1579 at the University of Cambridge, and his marriage in 1591 to Martha Wright. In 1596 his second cousin once removed, Henry Percy, 9th Earl of Northumberland, appointed him constable of Alnwick Castle and made him responsible for the Percy family's northern estates. He served the earl in the Low Countries in about 1600–1601, and in the years before 1603 was his intermediary in a series of confidential communications with King James VI of Scotland.
The doctrine of priest–penitent privilege does not apply in the UK. Before the Reformation, England was a Roman Catholic country and the Seal of the Confessional had great authority in the English courts. However, the Reformation was followed by a period of, often fierce, persecution of Catholics.
John (Jack) Wright, and Christopher (Kit) Wright, were members of the group of provincial English Catholics who planned the failed Gunpowder Plot of 1605, a conspiracy to assassinate King James I by blowing up the House of Lords. Their sister married another plotter, Thomas Percy. Educated at the same school in York, the Wrights had early links with Guy Fawkes, the man left in charge of the explosives stored in the undercroft beneath the House of Lords. As known recusants the brothers were on several occasions arrested for reasons of national security. Both were also members of the Earl of Essex's rebellion of 1601.
Robert Keyes was a member of the group of provincial English Catholics who planned the failed Gunpowder Plot of 1605, a conspiracy to assassinate King James I by blowing up the House of Lords during the State Opening of Parliament on 5 November 1605. He was the sixth man to join the plot.
Oswald Tesimond was an English Jesuit born in either Northumberland or York who, while not a direct conspirator, had some knowledge of the Gunpowder Plot beforehand.
Thomas Bates was a member of the group of provincial English Catholics who planned the failed Gunpowder Plot of 1605.
John Grant was a member of the failed Gunpowder Plot, a conspiracy to replace the Protestant King James I of England with a Catholic monarch. Grant was born around 1570, and lived at Norbrook in Warwickshire. He married the sister of another plotter, Thomas Wintour. Grant was enlisted by Robert Catesby, a religious zealot who had grown so impatient with James's lack of toleration for Catholics that he planned to kill him, by blowing up the House of Lords with gunpowder. Grant's role in the conspiracy was to provide supplies for a planned Midlands uprising, during which James's daughter, Princess Elizabeth, would be captured. However, on the eve of the planned explosion, Guy Fawkes was discovered guarding the explosives the plotters had positioned in the undercroft beneath the House of Lords, and arrested.
Humphrey Littleton, or Humphrey Lyttelton, died on 7 April 1606 at Red Hill outside Worcester. A member of the Lyttelton family, he was executed for his involvement in the Gunpowder plot. Robert Wintour and Stephen Littleton who had escaped from the fight at Holbeche House were captured at Hagley Park on 9 January 1606 despite Littleton's protests that he was not harbouring anyone. It was Littleton who told the authorities that Edward Oldcorne was hiding at Hindlip Hall after he had given him mass. Wintour, Oldcorne, and both Littletons were all executed.
Bill Cain, SJ is an American playwright and Jesuit priest. He founded a Shakespeare company in Boston, and The New York Times has praised him for his "impish humor".
The Gunpowder Plot was a failed assassination attempt against King James VI of Scotland and I of England by a group of provincial English Catholics led by Robert Catesby. The conspirators' aim was to blow up the House of Lords at the State Opening of Parliament on 5 November 1605, while the king and many other important members of the aristocracy and nobility were inside. The conspirator who became most closely associated with the plot in the popular imagination was Guy Fawkes, who had been assigned the task of lighting the fuse to the explosives.
Stephen Littleton, , was an Englishman executed for his involvement in the Gunpowder Plot.