Equivocation is a powder keg of a show from Walking Shadow

Photo by Dan Norman

What if the greatest playwright of the age had been approached by the government to write a propaganda piece about a recent, attempted terrorist attack only to discover that the “truth” behind it was much thornier than the smooth surface.

That’s the plot of Bill Cain’s “Equivocation,” which takes this John Grisham-like plot and drops in the middle of early 17^th-century London, where William Shakespeare finds himself with the impossible task of writing a play about the Gunpowder Plot.

This is perfect territory for Walking Shadow Theatre Company, whose past work includes Shakespeare-adjacent works like A Midwinter Night’s Revel and “Shakespeare’s Land of the Dead.” Though Cain’s script occasionally wanders, the tight direction and fascinating story carry through this compelling evening of theater.

One day, Shakespeare is called away from the Globe – where the company is hard at work making sense of “King Lear” – to meet with Robert Cecil, the behind-the-scenes controller of the King, court, and country. He – King James or Cecil, there’s not much difference – wants Shakespeare to write the “true” story of the recently attempted Gunpowder Plot, where a group of young, radical Catholics attempted to blow up Parliament and start a revolution.

From the get go, there is pressure everywhere: from Cecil, from the other actors in the company, and from Shakespeare (called Shagspeare or Shag here) himself, who realizes that a play about a plot that doesn’t succeed isn’t particularly good drama.

This pushes Shag to hunt deeper for the truth, and after a few interviews with the surviving conspirators and his own keen knowledge of human behavior, he finds an alarming plot behind the plot. There’s a real story here, but it means telling the truth. Mind you, this is an era where the wrong word can get you hung, drawn, quartered and your head hung on a pike.

Cain uses this to look the difficulty of uncovering and telling the truth in difficult times, whether it’s Jacobian England or our modern day, where any uncomplementary story is labeled as “fake news.” Beyond that, there are issues of art, collaboration, loyalty, and family – the last is a big one, as Shag has a troubled relationship with his daughter, Judith.

In other words, Cain put a lot on his plate. It makes for a sometimes overstuffed show, as ideas are constantly tossed around. Yet, while this may eventually make for an exhausting last 20 minutes (which includes whole swaths of one of Shakespeare’s plays), the overall effect is ultimately engaging.

Give director (and Walking Shadow co-artistic director) Amy Rummenie plenty of credit, as she molds all of this material into a sharp thriller that holds all of the stray ideas together. The company is also well chosen, though Walking Shadow’s co-artistic director John Heimbuch had to step into the key role of Richard, Shakespeare’s confidant and friend, at the last moment. During Saturday’s performance, he was still on book and working to meld fully with the rest of the company.

The other performers are all strong, especially Damon Mentzer as Shag and Eva Gemlo as Judith. Once Heimbuch has a chance to settle into the role, they whole company should be able to fire on all cylinders.

Equivocation runs through June 24 at the Gremlin Theater in St. Paul. Visit here for more information.