SKOKIE, Ill.—Death can be a potent reminder of what little time we have left to do what our hearts ache to do. In the case of the few surviving players of The King’s Men, the acting company for which William Shakespeare wrote, death reminds these aging gentlemen of something larger than themselves. In a world of pirated and corrupted literature, all of Shakespeare’s actual plays will be lost—forever—unless they do something. What will their legacy to the world be?
Lauren Gunderson’s heartfelt and intelligent “The Book of Will” is built around the few facts known about the 1623 publication of Shakespeare’s complete works in folio form. She imagines who the Dark Lady of Shakespeare’s sonnets was, how the folio came to be published by scalawag publisher William Jaggert (Austin Tichenor), and how the most famous playwright of the day and Shakespeare’s rival, Ben Johnson (William Dick), came to write the folio’s preface.
