Conspiracy Theory; Beard Dramatizes Dispute Over the Dramatist's Identity.

Summary

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Yet the play belongs to [Stephen Moorer]'s [Edward De Vere]. A lord of dark eccentricities and countless perversions, De Vere is like a jaded, murderous 16th century rock star. Cold and slimy, De Vere is also tremendously charismatic, disreputably handsome and funny as hell. He's dangerous. He's smart. He's fundamentally flawed. He's cool like some foppish Jim Morrison.

What follows is perhaps the most surprising and satisfying element of Freed's script. Shakespeare and De Vere's creative relationship begets an odd but genuine love that elevates Shakespeare's knack for stringing words together into great art while allowing De Vere to discover his long-repressed humanity. As it turns out, Shakespeare and De Vere are a 16th century Lennon and McCartney. Shakespeare's got the poetry and De Vere has the plot. Together they make Shakespeare's name famous, yet after two years, Will begins to chafe that De Vere is still getting all the credit among the upper class.

Meanwhile, a number of different subplots move the play along. Queen Elizabeth (played with a megalomaniacal zeal by [Emily Jordan]) and her privy council catch on to De Vere's game and want to play along. Soon Shakespeare is getting dozens of manuscripts dumped on him for "editing." The queen herself submits a fiery little piece titled The Taming of a Shrew. Also, Shakespeare's spurned wife makes a memorable appearance in London, which complicates his relationship with De Vere.

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Conspiracy Theory; Beard Dramatizes Dispute Over the Dramatist's Identity.

'It is a great thing when a man's hunger grows greater than his shame," says Edward De Vere, the debauched and shameless Earl of Oxford. And for a 16th century English lord, there is very little more shameful than fraternizing with actors. Yet the Earl of ...

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