by Barry Willis *

The black-box Condiotti Theatre at Spreckels Performing Arts Center morphs into Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre, a 17^th-century courtroom, a torture chamber, an execution site, and more in Bill Cain’s Equivocation, now running in Rohnert Park through September 13.

Adroitly directed by Spreckels’ artistic director Sheri Lee Miller, Cain’s 2009 play melds real events with plausible what-if scenarios, like all compelling historical fiction. This production is a master class in both professional directing and performance. Four of the show’s six cast members play multiple roles. All are exemplary.

The setup: Shakespeare and his Globe Theatre actors (“a cooperative venture”) need a new play. Confidently played by Jereme Anglin, “Shag”— as his colleagues call him from the alternate spelling of his name, Shagspeare—struggles to get a handle on the next one while his colleagues bicker and complain. Thus we see snippets of Macbeth, King Lear, etc.

Robert Cecil (Zane Walters), a courtier and close advisor to King James I (Drew Bolander), brings Shag a proposal for a script about the so-called Gunpowder Plot, in which a group of conspirators dug a tunnel under Parliament and stocked it with hundreds of pounds of gunpowder with the intention of blowing up the building and killing the king. (The plot was a real event: the film V for Vendetta riffs on it.)

A play about the attempted assassination of a sitting king—one the king himself will see! Can Shag write such an outlandish play and produce it without incurring royal wrath? Can his actors perform it without going to prison or losing their heads?

Its title is drawn from a controversial book about finding the safe zone between truth and falsehood, written by a priest named Father Henry Garnet (Kevin Bordi). Equivocation delves into that issue too, as many of the characters are true believers who think lying is a sin that will get them condemned to fiery eternal damnation. Garnet’s persecution and torment are the show’s strong secondary plot.

The production’s performers are brilliant engaging in abrupt character changes.  The script does something similar, with scenes instantly going from here to there and god knows where, with little transitional material to help viewers understand what they’re seeing. It’s a spectacular exercise in theater craft, but could prove difficult for casual viewers.

Equivocation works beautifully for an audience steeped in Shakespeare and English history. For those not so well informed it could be a tough slog, but nonetheless stunning.

Playing through September 13, 2026 in the Condiotti Experimental Theatre in the Spreckels Performing Arts Center, 5409 Snyder Lane, Rohnert Park.

Click HERE for more information and tickets.

Photos by Jeff Thomas

Barry Willis is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association and past president of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle. Contact: barry.m.willis@gmail.com