Pittsburgh in the Round: An intriguing journey for anyone who loves Shakespeare’s works or treasures the intimate artistry of solo theatre, Shakespeare’s Will provides a memorable dramatic portrait of a woman who deserves history’s listening ear. Thankfully, the play doesn’t rely on only documented facts as it would be a very short monologue indeed. Instead, Quantum Theatre brings Anne to life in a moving and musical 90-minute, one-woman show. This inventive regional premiere runs through Dec. 1 at West Homestead United Methodist Church.
2 comments:
Wow, what a fascinating piece of theatre this must be. I sort of fell down a rabbit hole of doing research on what this play was after reading this article and trying to find more photos of past productions of it. I am a big fan of one woman shows (The Belle of Amherst and Red Hot Patriot are two of my favorites). This one looks like it would tug right at the heart strings. I do not know of any pieces of media off the top of my head that focus only on Anne Hathaway. A lot of pieces of media focus just on Shakespeare and what he was doing and accomplishing in London (looking at you, Shakespeare in Love). I will have to find a script somewhere so I can see what Vern Theissen did with her and how he filled in all the holes of her life.
I always find media about Shakespeare and his life really interesting because there are so many gaps in that timeline. From a playwriting standpoint, that's so odd, because you're writing something almost half fact and half fiction. There needs to be some sort of reconciliation happening there by the playwright because you want to stick to facts, but there's really no way to do that completely. This issue is definitely intensified in Shakespeare's Will as there's little to nothing known about the specifics of Anne Hathaway's life and personality. It must be really difficult to research someone like her. Not just that, but this is set at a point in her life where historians sort of stopped caring. After Shakespeare's death, interest in Anne Hathaway's life sort of ends. I really love the idea of a play that explores this is really exciting to me. I know this isn't the first production of Shakespeare's Will, but it'll definitely be a really exciting one because, well, it's Quantum. I'm really excited to see it!
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