Shakespeare undressed

Young Chang

Playwright Amy Freed wrote what she calls the “21st century dream of

what happened a long time ago.”

Forget trying to unearth exactly what happened eons before -- we can’t

possibly know anyway, Freed figures.

“But we know what people are like,” she said. “We’re not striving for

perfection here. We’re striving for life and recognition and comedy.”

And all this she has achieved, abundantly, in a hilarious play

exploring one possible story of an illiterate provincial character who

joins the London theater for bit parts and eventually pens -- or helps

pen -- the canon of literature’s greatest works.

His name is William Shakespeare.

In Freed’s world, he is emotional, of a more naive strain than his

period counterparts, unknowing of his literary skill until a rather

terrible Earl of Oxford pushes him to realize it and lacking quite a bit

of hair.

“The Beard of Avon,” a world-premiere play which will run today

through July 1 at South Coast Repertory’s Mainstage, presents the Earl,

Sir Francis Bacon and Queen Elizabeth as other possible masterminds

behind the work we attribute today to Shakespeare.

The debate is real, as director David Emmes and cast members better

learned through working on the show. One side calls themselves the

Oxfordians -- they believe the Earl of Oxford, Edward de Vere, wrote

Shakespeare’s plays. Other staunch debaters say it was someone else.

“I think what [Freed] has done is really taken all those kind of

controversial theories and has come up with a very intriguing answer as

to how could anyone write this extraordinary canon of work,” Emmes said.

“So I kind of want to leave it up to the audience to decide.”

The authorship issue, he continued, is like an engine that drives the

play forward, but the real focus is on art.

“It’s a kinetic celebration of the theater, about creativity and

creating work and about the nature of the creative process and the nature

of genius, in a way,” Emmes said. “And she has done it in a wonderfully

funny and imaginative and inventive way.”

Intertwined with Shakespearean-speak is a heavy, witty dose of

contemporary humor.

The earl fancies men as well as women, prefers not to associate with

theater-folk because it’s somehow embarrassing and is both excruciatingly

self-aware and self-ignorant. He asks Shakespeare if he could hide his

work behind his unknown name.

Shakespeare agrees, being the eager spirit he is to do anything

related to theater. Slowly, he starts helping the earl with some lines

here, some soliloquies there, eventually whole plays based on his

benefactor’s bare ideas -- oh, and he’s learned to read along the way.

“No one gets to be a high achiever without being changed significantly

by people on the way,” Freed said. “That’s the thing that’s so

unsatisfying in Shakespeare’s bio. I don’t believe a person just shows up

in New York or London and gets a job and is brilliant.”

On the Shakespeare debate, the playwright admits she’s inclined to

believe Shakespeare lived a story similar to the one being told in

“Beard.” While most might prefer, for emotion’s sake, that Shakespeare

was really Shakespeare, Freed says she’s a dramatist who loves mysteries,

conspiracies and simply a good story.

“I have to admit, that’s where I come from, but it’s purely just in

the interest that it’s more fun for me,” she said.

FYI

WHAT: “The Beard of Avon”

WHEN: 8 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday, 2:30 p.m. Saturday and Sunday,

and 7:30 p.m. Sunday through July 1

WHERE: South Coast Repertory, 655 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa

COST: $28-$49

CALL: (714) 708-5555