Just a wooden table Will can write on, and a chair for him to sit in. It's 1599, and Will Shakespeare has just finished Henry V and is working on an early draft of Hamlet. A special shareholders meeting of the Lord Chamberlain's Men has been called, and now it's Shakespeare's job to inform the great veteran clown, Will Kempe, that Falstaff has been killed off and won't be in the new play, and that in the future there will be no more improvisation, interpolated clowning, or jigs in their performances---Kempe's specialty. In the future, Kempe will have to just stick to the script that Shakespeare has written. Kempe is furious, and presents a passionate defense of the comedian's right to talk to the audience and insert funny business. At stake is the future of drama, as well as the father/son relationship of these two men. The old clown is certain the script is just a jumping off point, that Shakespeare's text is irrelevant to the true nature of theatre, and that this will go down as the Age of Will Kempe.
Published in Mysterium & Other Plays.