Shakespeare unmasked in the park

 

By MIKE YOUDS

Somewhere, buried within the dusty stacks of his theatrical canon, the ghost of William Shakespeare is having a great belly laugh over the unending mystery of his identity.

Here we are, 499 years after his death, still trying to unmask our greatest literary genius.

Under the trees in Prince Charles Park, audiences are laughing along with him as X Fest presents The Shakespeare Show, a two-handed spoof about the mystery by B.C. playwright Ryan Gladstone. The play runs in repertory with The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood until Aug. 1, marking the 10th anniversary of the festival.

With their rapid-fire opening lines — all in iambic pentameter, of course — actors Andrew Cooper and Kelsey Gilker remind us that the Bard’s influence extends well beyond stage and verse. You may know absolutely nothing of the man or his works, but if you speak English, you probably use his phrases and words in everyday language.

I mean, for goodness’ sake (from Henry VIII), give the devil his due (from Henry IV).

Yet Gladstone doesn’t so much investigate the Shakespeare mystery as he entertains it for entertainment’s sake. What a wonderfully creative concept, to turn a compelling mystery into pure mirth using the same artistry and style that distinguish Shakespearean drama.

Part of the fascination with the mystery is that theories resemble the fiction they seek to explain, mirroring the machinations and masks within the Bard’s tales. Logic dictates that the illiterate son of a glover could not have possibly written so masterfully and prolifically. Skeptics have offered up an ensemble cast of Elizabethan contemporaries who could have been the true authors, who would have had solid motives for artifice in order to keep their heads intact. They include other literary geniuses, writers of no less stature than Walt Whitman, Ralph Waldo Emerson and Mark Twain, who have waded into the debate.

The show revolves around one particular argument, the Oxfordian theory proposed by John Thomas Looney in 1920 (obviously they couldn’t call it the Looney Theory) and alludes to a host of others. Looney pointed to Edward De Vere, the Earl of Oxford, as the likely candidate.

For Cooper and Gilkey, the play is a platform for their impressive talents as young and emerging Kamloops actors. For audiences, it’s just a night of lighthearted, irreverent and occasionally ribald fun. Gilroy, as a woman playing a man (Oxford), who at various times plays a woman, is a chameleon of facial expression. Cooper is equal to the considerable challenge of Shakespearean speech.

X Fest faithfuls will inevitably draw comparisons to the 2010 presentation of The Compleat Wrks of Wllm Shkspr (Abridged), another physical romp that left them laughing. It would be interesting, though a little exhausting for actors and audience alike, to see them on the same bill. While not riotously funny in the manner of Compleat Wrks, The Shakespeare Show bears its own mad charm.

At times it feels as though we’re dancing on Shakespeare’s grave, yet this show, in full measure, is a celebration of his rich legacy.