O.C. THEATER REVIEW : Shakespeare the Man Plays On

If you are among that very vocal group that thinks William Shakespeare did not write the plays, you might look in on Gregory Bell’s “Alms for Oblivion,” Shakespeare Orange County’s opening production of its 1994 season.

It might change your mind.

Written and performed by Bell, under Sherman Howard’s crystal-clear direction, “Alms” is an introduction to the playwright himself, popping through a time warp to make it perfectly clear that: He is not uneducated; he is conversant with court figures and their shenanigans in London, and he is and always had been, from early youth, a poet.

He also admonishes us that his literary children should not be taken from him any more than the children of any proud parent should be. Even the illustrious Ben Jonson said the plays were his. So there.

Bell’s Shakespeare is very convincing, primarily because a ton of research has allowed him to create the full-blooded, rounded figure of a man, a playwright, a family man--even though he strayed in several directions--and a father who grieved because his wife, Anne, would not join him in London, where his work took him.

This Bard is a man of all time, at home wherever--even on present-day Venice Beach (which he calls “lost Italy”). He stumbles on stage over an anachronistic metal folding chair and professes his amusement at such modern-day accouterments as sunglasses, hair tinted neon colors and shoes with wheels. But that’s all only a conceit to draw the viewer with him back in time, to the cobbled streets of Elizabethan Stratford.

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He explains how he fell head over heels in love with theater, wearing his first jerkin at age 5, watching the Queen’s Players on tour. The stage was a lover he would never desert. And prepared for the relationship he was, by the drudgery of schoolboy Latin and history and by his insatiable curiosity. Bell’s Will not only could, but probably did, write the plays.

The first act is light, airy, gossipy and detailed with the many moments and moods that lead Shakespeare eventually to London and to the Globe Theatre. He is a raconteur, a wit, willing to poke his elbow at his listener to punctuate a joke or take a pratfall to make a point.

The second half of the evening slowly develops into something darker. Here we find a portrait of the maturing Shakespeare, bemoaning the early death of his son Hamlet, finding his way through the labyrinthine political puzzle of royal politics into which his plays, particularly “Richard II,” sometimes led him.

Bell’s Shakespeare grows in size and develops a deep, ocher patina. At the end, he quotes Prospero from “The Tempest.” Shakespeare is at the end of his own tempest; when Prospero speaks of breaking his magical staff, the poet breaks his quill pen.

Director Howard has given Bell an intricate framework for his insightful portrait, physically inventive, varied in tone and splashing joyfully over the playwright’s life like a cascade of recalled incident and emotion.

It is, however Bell’s variegated hues and delicate pirouettes of intellect, both in writing and performance, that give life to his creation.

This is a Shakespeare as alive as his plays and sonnets, as much fun as a romp through the Forest of Arden, as full of truth and humanity as any character born through his pen.

* “Alms for Oblivion,” Waltmar Theatre, Chapman University, 333 N. Glassell St., Orange. Thursdays through Saturdays, 8 p.m., Sundays, 3 p.m. Ends June 26. $18-$20. (714) 744-7016. Running time: 2 hours. Gregory Bell: William Shakespeare

A Shakespeare Orange County production of a one-man play written and performed by Gregory Bell. Directed by Sherman Howard. Produced by Charm Lauritzen. Lighting design: David Darwin. Costume design: Sean Willee. Stage manager: Sherri Nieman.