‘The Book of Will’ Hits the Stage in Solvang

It’s 1616, and William Shakespeare has died. In our information-on-demand world, it’s easy to assume that at the time of his death, his dramatic works were bound for posterity in organized volumes. In fact, the Bard’s plays were in fragments (some transcribed, some merely memorized) all over London. In PCPA’s production of Lauren Gunderson’s The Book of Will, playing at the Solvang Festival Theater from August 31–September 10, an intrepid group of actors, for whom Shakespeare’s work was meaningful, begin a quest to posthumously cobble together his collected works.

This boisterous comedy is not limited to fans of Shakespeare’s work, says Andrew Philpot, who plays John Heminges, one of the actors in Shakespeare’s company. “This is not a museum piece; this is not something that’s supposed to edify you and make you smarter; this is to entertain you…. It’s about people on a mission, and it’s really funny. It also has moments that are incredibly moving and beautiful.”

Says Isabella Lind, who plays Alice, Heminges’s daughter who aids the quest from behind the scenes, “It’s about people who are willing to sacrifice and put their lives on hold because they know if they don’t publish these works, they will be completely lost to time.”

Directed by Emily Trask, The Book of Will is a love letter to plays that move us, generation after generation. “When someone asks me why I love Shakespeare,” says Lind, “my answer every time is that he puts words to feelings that we all have inside of us that we’ve never thought to declare out loud, and he knows how to do that.” 

See The Book of Will under the stars, just as plays were seen at Shakespeare’s open-air Globe Theatre. “He has such a deep understanding of the human psyche,” says Philpot. “Nobody says it like Shakespeare!”

See pcpa.org.