My interest in the Shakespeare authorship controversy began when I was visiting the British author Tony Shaffer. Over dinner, Shakespeare came up, and Tony said rather bluntly, "Of course William did not write all that stuff." I expressed surprise and was then taken to his den and handed a battered book. "You can't take this away. It's rare and out of print, but find it and you will know the truth." The book, The Man Who Was Shakespeare, was by an American, Calvin Hoffman.
On the trail of Calvin Hoffman
I found the book, and became intrigued like Shaffer, wondering
whether Calvin had exposed what might be the biggest cover up in literary history.
For several years I read about almost nothing else. I found there were hundreds of books doubting Shakespeare, that there were three main challengers, and that the most interesting, as Hoffman claimed, was Christopher Marlowe. Thus prepared, I was able to debate and turn the encounters with the establishment scholars into lively exchanges. Throughout, Calvin's theory was my challenge as I found that his disciples were still active around the world.
A road movie into the 16th century
The story falls into three parts. The first is these disciples, often eccentric and amusing, but who, as they talk, paint an impressive picture of Marlowe as a playwright who could have written Shakespeare's plays.
The second part looks at whether there is really any reason to doubt Shakespeare. There are many puzzles in his biography, but the main doubt comes from his lack of higher education. The plays and poems are extremely erudite, but there is no evidence of William ever being well educated.
It was only then in the third part that I could address the main weakness in the Hoffman argument. History tells us Marlowe died in 1593 at the age of 29, so could not be the hidden hand behind the Bard. Following Hoffman's lead, the film investigates the circumstances surrounding Marlowe's supposed death, organised, Hoffman claims, so that Marlowe could escape the Star Chamber, a court with terrible powers of interrogation. That if he did so, he may have gone to live incognito in Italy and written the plays we know as Shakespeare's. Shakespeare plays the role of second writer and front man, delivering the masterpieces to the London stage. All supposition, but lively stuff!
The real coup came at the end of the two-year shoot. I had heard rumours that Mark Rylance, Artistic Director of Shakespeare's Globe theatre, was a doubter, a Baconian in fact. For a year, I had tried to get an interview with Mark, and at the 11th hour, it was granted. With this great Shakespearean actor saying he's not convinced Shakespeare's properly credited, Much Ado About Something, moves decisively out of the crackpot zone.
In putting the story together, my strategy was to treat it as a great detective story. This meant giving plenty of screen time to the opposing views, and also treating the subject with as much humour as I could muster. I decided too that, since my interest had begun very personally, it should be told as a personal journey, a sort of road movie into the 16th century.
Visit Much Ado's own website for more on the film.
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