What if, asks Brigham Young University playwright Tim Slover, the dying Queen Elizabeth I had requested a performance of her favorite play by William Shakespeare and his company of players?
His answer lies in the premiere of "March Tale," which opens the BYU Margetts Arena Theatre season Friday (Sept. 29) at 7:30 p.m. The play continues Tuesdays through Saturdays through Oct. 14, with half-price preview performances on Sept. 27 and 28 and a 1 p.m. matinee on Saturday, Oct. 7.Tickets are available at the Fine Arts Ticket Office, (801) 378-4322.
Not only is the play set in Elizabethan times, says director Bob Nelson, but the play has many Shakespearean elements to it as well.
"This is a Shakespearean-style romantic comedy in that Tim has crafted several groups of characters ranging from the higher to lower classes, from serious to comic subjects and from older to younger players," Nelson said. "In the course of the play, these groups and their concerns are interwoven - so closely interwoven, in fact, that in the end, resolution in one is associated with resolution in another."
The play, loosely based on an actual historic incident, takes place in March 1603 in the last few days of Queen Elizabeth's reign. "She knows she is dying, but is trying to deny it, so she decides to take the court to her favorite palace, Richmond, and invite Shakespeare's company to perform `The Merry Wives of Windsor,' " says Nelson.
While the topic may be Shakespearean, the flavor of the play is truly modern. "Audiences shouldn't be put off by the fact that Shakespeare is a character in the play, because he is eminently human and approachable," said Nelson. "This is about Shakespeare the man interacting with his wife, Anne, in a relationship that is strained in large measure due to his choosing to pursue his career at the expense of his family. And how many of us, in these days of multiple-career families and commuter marriages, can relate to that?"
The comic subplot of the play deals with a scheme by some of the players to steal a barrel or two of the queen's pearls. "Audiences will recognize here some of the shenanigans of Shakespeare's working-class clowns," he said.
Of course, there is the queen herself. "For centuries she has been the subject of wonder, and she was truly the greatest monarch who had ruled England to that date," said Nelson.
" `March Tale' isn't just an historical exercise, but a thoroughly entertaining theater piece," Nelson said.
According to Slover, the inspiration for the play came from two sources: his exposure as a child to Stratford-Upon-Avon during the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare's birth and his long-time admiration for Queen Elizabeth.
"For the anniversary, Stratford was all done up just as it had been when Shakespeare had lived there, with street criers and costumed actors," he said, noting that it made an overwhelming impression on a young child. "Ever since then, I've been very interested in the world of Shakespeare."
Slover has since acted in more than a dozen Shakespearean plays and has seen stage or film versions of almost all of the Bard's works. "For me, there are parts in his plays that reveal him as a person, and those parts have come back to me repeatedly. And that's what I wanted to write about, when I had the chance."
"I've always had an immense crush on Queen Elizabeth, who was truly the greatest monarch in England's history," Slover added. "She moved England from its medieval period into the modern age - all at enormous personal cost. And I've always been interested in that cost."
Guest artist Ned Butikofer as William Shakespeare and veteran actors Char Nelson as Anne, David Morgan as Tom, Peggy Matheson as Queen Elizabeth and Eric Samuelsen as Will Kemp join a cast of student actors for the performances.
Scenic design is by Stuart Lewis, with costumes by Tara DeGrey and Nancy Yam, lighting by Tania James and sound by Kevin Anderson.
With this run of "March Tale," the Theatre and Film Department inaugurates its new matinee offering, which will now run on a Saturday afternoon during the run of the Margetts and Pardoe Theatre shows instead of on a Monday afternoon.