The Beard of Avon

Gamm Theatre presents The Beard of Avon, by Amy Freed.

Poor Will ‘Shakspere’ hates his life in Stratford-on-Avon, not to mention his bossy wife. But this farmer with a gift for rhyming couplets doesn’t know what to do instead. Not until a troupe of traveling players comes through town and inspires him to move to London to become an actor, that is. What follows is the beautifully imagined and hilarious answer to a nagging question: Was this loutish, unlettered boy responsible for the greatest works of the English language; or was he merely a beard, or front man, for such luminaries as the Earl of Oxford, Sir Francis Bacon, or even Queen Elizabeth herself?