“What if Shakespeare had
been hired by the Government
of England to write the official
dramatic account of the Gunpowder Plot?” asked James Michael Reilly, a veteran member
of The Shakespeare Theatre of
New Jersey who portrays Shag
(short for Shagspeare, the contemporary spelling of The Bard’s
name). “And then, what if in attempting to create that presentation he discovered that the
Government’s story did not hold
together? It’s a realization that
he and his acting company were
faced with a very stark choice lie or die.”
“It’s life or death stakes and a
moral dilemma,” continued Reilly. “If he wasn’t someone that
didn’t want to lie there wouldn’t
be a problem. But the reality of
this time period was that when
you said something on oath, you
literally were putting your mortal soul at stake saying that this
was the truth. The idea of lying
is charged for them in a different
way than it is in our society now.
The play is a dramatized examination of a hypothetical event.”
The play is inspired by the actual Gunpowder Plot, which took
place November 4-5, 1605. A
man named Guy Fawkes was
found walking around a cellar under the British Parliament building. When the area
was searched, they discovered
roughly 20 barrels of gunpowder. “During a torture session
on the rack, Fawkes revealed
that he was a participant in an
English Catholic conspiracy to
annihilate England’s Protestant
government and replace it with
Catholic leadership.” 1
1
He and his acting company were faced
with a very stark choice - lie or die.
NewJerseyStage.com
2015 - ISSUE 9
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