Review | ‘The Book of Will’ at Solvang Festival Theater

PCPA closes out their summer season of reprise productions at the Solvang Festival Theater with The Book of Will, an affable story of the remaining members of Shakespeare’s acting troupe attempting to posthumously piece together the Bard’s complete works from fragments of plays spread among actors and collectors all over London. Written by Lauren Gunderson, The Book of Will is droll and diverting, especially for audience members with an affinity for theater history.

The joy of seeing shows produced by PCPA is greater than getting lost in the work of the theater artists who devise beautiful scenic elements (in this case, various locations throughout Elizabethan London), costumes, lights, props, and sound — the players on the PCPA stages are always high quality. Andrew Philpot and Don Stewart, as John Heminges and Henry Condell (the last of Shakespeare’s actors left standing), are bold, sensitive, and determined — qualities that make actors and characters (and characters who are actors) inspiring and relatable. They hold space for the comedic and dramatic elements of the journey with a level hand. Other performance highlights include Erik Stein as the gleefully diabolical William Jaggard, and George Walker as poet laureate and lascivious lush Ben Johnson.

Philpot said it best when he described The Book of Will as a love letter to all things Shakespeare. This is a story about the very first generation of Shakespeare devotees, people who were moved by the plays and the poetry when they were new. With this nod to the Bard of Avon, PCPA will bring down the curtain on their season after the final performance of The Book of Will on September 10, but next season is already in the works! Coming to Solvang under the stars in 2024 are plays of music and mayhem, including Little Shop of Horrors, The Play That Goes Wrong, Cabaret, and The Agitators.