A true story of literary fraud and family deceit in the 18th century – comic, tragic and scarcely believable.
There are two problems with deception.
The first is being found out.
The second is not being found out.
London, 1794. Noted collector of old books Samuel Ireland is delighted when his son William brings him a mortgage deed apparently signed by Shakespeare. William claims it was given to him by a mysterious Mr H, who insists on anonymity. Hoping to please his father even more, William continues to supply items from the same source, including a letter to Anne Hathaway, a portrait of Shakespeare, even the complete texts of hitherto unknown plays written by the Bard. But when one of these plays is staged at Drury Lane, and Samuel mounts an exhibition of the newly discovered papers, scholars begin to question their authenticity and denounce Samuel as a forger. The household, presided over by housekeeper Mrs Freeman, is thrown into turmoil. As they search for the truth regarding the Shakespeare papers, family skeletons come tumbling out of cupboards and they find themselves caught up in a tale worthy of Shakespeare himself.
In 2026. Samuel, William and Mrs Freeman meet again to try and sort out the truth of it all …
Fakespeare is about truth and lies, then and now. Although the events of the play – the Great Shakespeare Fraud – happened in the 1790s, the characters are actually telling us the story in the present day, fully aware of the audience. Lies, however well-intentioned, lead to the destruction of the family in the play, and even today the truth about what actually happened then is hard to pin down. Where does the truth lie? As the characters tell us at the end of the play, it is for you to decide whether what you have been watching is a domestic drama, a tragedy or a comedy. Or perhaps it is all three.
Fakespeare is an entertaining object lesson in the timeless need for honesty and truthfulness in human interactions.
