←Recommendations of The Book of Will

I was lucky enough to catch this at the Taproot Theatre and I'm still reveling in the glow of this incredible play. I had joyous tears streaming down my cheeks from the enormity of it all. This is a gorgeous, well-researched, heartfelt love letter to Shakespeare and theatre. It is stunning how, but for a few caring, unsung heroes, we could have lost Shakespeare's words forever. It isn't just a play, it is a call to arms to lift up those around us whose gifts we treasure and make sure they are never forgotten. Standing ovation!

I saw this at Theatrical Outfit in Atlanta. What an amazing script. I adored it beyond words. The love Ms. Gunderson has for Shakespeare is evident. More importantly for this play, she loves the people who worked hard to preserve his work. My favorite part is the dedication to women in this play. It isn't just the men who saved Shakespeare's legacy, it was the women as well. Truly a breath of fresh air. Magnificent!

Lauren Gunderson has written a love letter to language, to story, to actors, to theater, to legacy, to life.

Gunderson has written a concise, playful, and earnest tale of how Shakespeare’s First Folio might have come together. Surprisingly energetic for a story about publishing, the playwright also very successfully tackles such questions as what is the enduring attraction of Shakespeare, and why do we even produce and attend the theater? Finally, Gunderson once again squarely addresses the hardship and wonder of mortality with dignity, pathos, and joy. A brilliant work by one of our great modern playwrights.

Lively and exuberant -- a play about publishing and posterity, about minutiae and dealmaking, that keeps its most famous character offstage and yet manages to be a rollicking high-stakes life-and-death drama about striving to recognize and preserve something fundamental about humanity itself.

THE BOOK OF WILL feels like a new Shakespeare. It’s a play that speaks to the ephemeral quality of theater; of being in the room breathing with artists and seeing a performance that’s unlike any that have happened in the past or will happen in the future, and of being in a show that you know one day must end. There’s also this sense of urgency and suspense, even though it’s a history play and we all know how it has to end, which is a mark of a brilliant writer.