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— Danny Raskin
Happy Birthday, Will!
A Jewish woman behind the Bard?
I
Suzanne Chessler
Contributing Writer
A
s theater companies schedule
productions to celebrate the
450th anniversary of the birth
of William Shakespeare, skeptics question
the authenticity of his authorship — with
some pondering whether the celebrated
plays and poems might have been written
by a woman of Jewish heritage.
Could Amelia Bassano Lanier (also
spelled Aemelia Bassano Lanyer), who
lived from 1569-1645, be the Dark Lady
of Shakespeare's sonnets or, beyond that,
the actual writer of works attributed to
Shakespeare?
That's not the issue being raised by
three Michigan companies as they pre-
pare for summer performances of the
works questioned by others. For them,
the play's the thing.
Shakespeare in Detroit will pres-
ent A Midsummer Night's Dream and
Romeo and Juliet. Water Works Theatre
Company in Royal Oak is focused
on Hamlet and The Complete Works
of William Shakespeare (Abridged)
(Revised), a parody by Adam Long,
Daniel Singer and Jess Winfield. The
Michigan Shakespeare Festival in Jackson
is staging Hamlet and Cymbeline.
Away from Michigan, connections to
Bassano have been put forth in an ana-
lytic piece, "Unmasking Shakespeare by
Michael Posner, who writes for Toronto's
Globe and Mail:
"The Bassano authorship theory's prin-
cipal proponent is John Hudson, a gradu-
ate of the Shakespeare Institute at the
University of Birmingham, in England:'
Posner has written.
"Hudson has spent ... seven years por-
ing over Shakespeare texts and scholarly
material as well as mounting productions
of the plays with his New York-based
troupe, the Dark Lady Players.
"He's also written an 800-page manu-
script in support of his contention that
if Amelia Bassano did not author all of
Shakespeare in Detroit
A Midsummer Night's Dream
8:30 p.m. Saturday, July 12
New Center Park (2990 W. Grand Blvd.) • Free
Romeo and Juliet
7 p.m. Saturday, July 26
Grand Circus Park (Downtown Detroit) • Free
shakespeareindetroit.com
Water Works Theatre Company
Hamlet
July 31-Aug. 10 • 8 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays
and 5 p.m. Sundays
Starr Jaycee Park (13 Mile between Main and
Crooks) Royal Oak • $20
the works, she was a major collaborator,
influenced them all and contributed their
underlying allegorical plots"
Bassano was the daughter of a
Venetian-born musician (he was a con-
verso, or "secret Jew," who only outwardly
recanted his Jewish faith during the time
of the Spanish Inquisition), who played
for the royal court of England, where his
daughter came of age, assumed her place
in society and was educated.
It is argued that the absence of a
worldly education and higher status in
society in Shakespeare's life would have
made it impossible for him to have many
of the references made in writings attrib-
uted to him.
"Hudson and other scholars maintain
that Merchant of Venice is not an anti-
Semitic slander but an extraordinary
appeal for equality:' Posner has contend-
ed. Also argued are instances of Jewish
subtext in A Midsummer Night's Dream
and spoken Hebrew in All's Well That
Ends Well.
Sally O'Reilly, who has written a
new novel, Dark Aemilia: A Novel of
Shakespeare's Dark Lady (Picador), devis-
es a romantic relationship shared by her
protagonist, England's first female poet,
and Shakespeare.
Dark Aemilia, released in May, is writ-
ten in narrative but divided similarly
to a play with acts and scenes instead
of chapters. For those interested in the
topic, there is a free eBook by O'Reilly,
Shakespeare's Dark Lady: The Lost Story
of Aemilia Bassano Lanyer, which has a
collection of Shakespeare's "Dark Lady"
sonnets, historical details and her poetry
"Dark Aemilia is a work of imagina-
tion, based on fact:' O'Reilly wrote in the
historical notes to her book. "I wanted
to tell a story that was authentic and his-
torically accurate. Equally importantly,
I wanted to write about Shakespeare's
London as if I was there:'
For those wanting to see the plays pro-
duced locally, here is a schedule listed by
theater company:
The Complete Works of William
Shakespeare (Abridged) (Revised)
Aug. 2-10, 2 p.m Aug. 2-3, 9-10;
7 p.m. Aug. 5-6 • $10
(248) 399-3727; waterworkstheatre.com
Michigan Shakespeare Festival
Hamlet and Cymbeline
July 17-Aug. 17 (rotating dates and times)
Michigan Baughman Theatre at Jackson
Community College
2111 Emmons Road, Jackson • $31-$40
(517) 998-3673;
michiganshakespearefestival.com ❑
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