'Equivocation' – To lie or not to lie

Let’s get right to the question. Is “Equivocation”, Bill Cain’s inquiry into history, posterity, political power, torture, truth, lies, revenge, jealous actors, and disaffected daughters a dazzling masterpiece that should not be missed? Well, yes and no.

Arena Stage hosts the acclaimed Oregon Shakespeare Festival with the original cast from the 2009 premiere of Cain’s award winning play. “Equivocation” is funny, violent, thought-provoking, accessible, confusing — and long. At nearly three hours, this script keeps adding good (sometimes not so good) ideas and folding them in to an already complex mix. Consider the premise.

Robert Cecil, acting on behalf of James I, wants London’s foremost playwright, Will Shakespeare (or “Shag” as his friends call him) to write a play about the Gunpowder Plot. He will be expected to follow the official version written by James himself in which the Catholic plotters (the bad guys) learn to regret (through hanging, burning, drawing and quartering) conspiring against the good guys (James and his government).

The problem with fictionalizing history that is still fresh in everyone’s mind is the question of whose version you use. (Hint: not the losers’.) Shakespeare argues from a standpoint of artistic and intellectual freedom, which is pretty funny pitted against the evidence of his already existing history plays. Ultimately, he has to freely agree to do it and live, or freely decline to do it and endure a traitor’s reward. Once he freely agrees to do it, he has to bring the other members of The King’s Men into the project. As they like to consider themselves a “cooperative venture”, watching them “cooperate” is part of the humor.

What follows is the head-spinning acrobatics of character and scene changes kept from utter chaos by Bill Rauch’s clear-headed direction and careful timing as well as Christopher Akerlind’s calmly specific lighting. Five of the six actors lithely jump from King’s Men to James’ men, to players within plays. Christine Albright as Shakespeare’s daughter, Judith, patiently moves in and out of scenes, cleans up after her father’s writing frenzies, and comments dryly on the overuse of soliloquies. She is a breather from some of the madness.

What’s an actor to do when he’s cast as The Greatest Poet In the English Language? Do what Anthony Heald does. Remember that he is still playing a man, after all — a genius, but a man with ambition, secrets, frustrations, ego, and fears. Mr. Heald does an admirable job.

Jonathan Haugen, who plays Nate in the King’s Men, is also Cecil, crooked-spined, ruthless, certain of his entitlement to power. There is a poetic comeuppance between Cecil’s loyalty to the king and the actual king that he serves. James I, portrayed by John Tufts (Sharpe in the King’s Men) comes across in all his fatuous, boyish glory, referring to Cecil archly as his “beagle” though Cecil was the one who smoothed his path to the throne.

Mr. Cain does know his Shakespeare, but can’t quite restrain himself from showing it off. We get rehearsal scenes from “King Lear,” heart-wringing lines from Richard III, an explanation of the dirty joke in “Twelfth Night” (just in case we didn’t already know it) and truncated scenes from “Macbeth” which James simply adores, not only because it has witches — his favorite — but because people are afraid to say what they think against the king. The ongoing “Macbeth” joke occurs throughout “Equivocation” as familiar lines from the famous tragedy keep popping up in the play about the Gunpowder Plot that “Shagspeare” is attempting, unsuccessfully, to write.

Four hundred years after an event, it’s safe to invent dialogue and situations to serve a larger purpose. And “equivocating” isn’t really “lying” — it’s answering in such a way as to serve a higher purpose, lying without being a liar, responding to the question beneath the question. That was Father Garnet’s (Richard Elmore) story, anyway, and he stuck to it — until he was hanged.

The playwright gives Shakespeare improbable access to Thomas Wintour between bouts in the torture chamber and allows his research to lead back to Cecil, playing in to the recreational conspiracy theory that Cecil was behind it all along. (He wasn’t, just so you know.)

The dialogue is straight-forward modern without being slangy, although a few easily recognized vulgarities pop up from time to time. Christopher Acebo’s set is a marvel of equivocating function — towering wooden walls and a wooden stage that instantly go from the palace to the dungeon to rehearsal space at the Globe. And Andre Pluess’ heavy hitting sound design heralds and supports the quicksilver changes of mood. Costumes by Deborah Dryden introduce the early 17^th century without getting bogged down in detail.

The last 20 minutes suggest an ending that doesn’t know how to happen, and when it finally does, the vignette between “Shagspeare” and Judith, however tender, feels out of step. Somewhere in this entertaining potpourri of a play are points about equivocation — how we call things, how we regard the truth and what it means to tell the truth both on a private and a public level. So. Did I absolutely adore “Equivocation”? Sometimes. A little. Maybe.

Maggie Lawrence is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association. She is a retired drama teacher from CCHS.

Want to go? 

What: “Equivocation”

Where: Arena Stage in the Kreeger Theatre, Washington, D.C.

Call: (202) 488-3300 or visit arenastage.org

Playing through Jan. 1