A ‘Book of Will’ for all time

The Condells and Heminges with Ben Johnson in The Book of Will at American Players Theatre in Spring Green (Liz Loren photo)
The Condells, left and Heminges, right with Ben Johnson, center,  in The Book of Will at American Players Theatre in Spring Green (Liz Loren photo)

4 stars

High school kids typically encounter Shakespeare in an English class. A Shakespearean comedy is often staged outdoors in the summer. And, insightful comments from Shakespeare’s plays are quoted so often that some of the folks saying the witty words don’t even know they originated more than 400 years ago from the pen of an English playwright/poet who died in 1616.

But what if the plays of this great dramatist called the “Bard of Avon” had been lost or remembered incorrectly by players and printers?

Why and how they have been saved as the 1623 First Folio is the subject of American playwright Lauren Gunderson’s “Book of Will.”

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