New Play Equivocation Completes MTC's 2009-2010 Season

Manhattan Theatre Club will complete its 2009-2010 season with the New York premiere of Bill Cain’s Equivocation. The play will begin previews at New York City Center Stage I on February 9, 2010, and will open on March 2. Casting and creative team will be announced in the coming weeks.

Set in 1605 England, Equivocation begins when King James’ right hand man commissions Shakespeare to write a play about the Gunpowder Plot, a recent failed attempt to blow up Parliament and the Monarchy. The Bard replies, “I write histories, not current events.” Coerced by his own company to appease the government and write the play, Shakespeare embarks upon an investigation that uncovers unexpected lies and threats, deceits and dangers.

Equivocation received its world premiere at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, directed by artistic director Bill Rauch and starring Broadway and MTC vet Anthony Heald (Inherit the Wind; Love! Valour! Compassion!; Lips Together, Teeth Apart; The Lisbon Traviata). The production received excellent reviews and is scheduled to run through October 31. Cain is the author of the play Stand-Up Tragedy and co-creator of the Peabody Award-winning TV series Nothing Sacred.

Manhattan Theatre Club’s complete Broadway season at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre will feature a new production of George S. Kaufman and Edna Ferber’s The Royal Family, the New York premiere of Donald Margulies’ Time Stands Still and the Broadway premiere of Margulies’ Collected Stories. The complete off-Broadway season includes Lynn Redgrave’s Nightingale, Equivocation and Polly Stenham’s That Face.