Last Day for Quantum’s ‘Shakespeare’s Will’ and City Theatre’s ‘One Night in Miami’ (Sun., 12/1/19)

In ‘Shakespeare’s Will,’ Shakespeare is dead but Anne Hathaway (Sheila McKenna) takes arms against a sea of troubles. (Photo by Jason Snyder; image treatment by BOOM Creative)

1) This much we know: Anne Hathaway, the popular American actress, was named after the long-ago Anne Hathaway, Shakespeare’s wife. About that Anne, only some basic facts and figures are known. She and the playwright married in their teens. Records suggest that Anne was already pregnant with the couple’s daughter Susanna, born six months later. They had a son, Hamnet, who died at age 11. Anne Hathaway survived her husband by several years. And, there are clues in Shakespeare’s will and elsewhere that perhaps he was not a perfect husband, nor the marriage one of perfect bliss. Those wishing further speculation can catch Vern Theissen’s new play, Shakespeare’s Will, at Quantum Theatre. It brings Anne Hathaway out of the shadows and into the spotlight—speculatively, of course. The actors are Sheila McKenna as Anne and young Simon Nigam as another character, perhaps Hamnet, or Hamnet’s ghost. Shakespeare’s Will is performed at West Homestead United Methodist Church. 7 p.m. Last day. 515 W. 8th Ave., Homestead. (MV)  

‘One Night in Miami’ is onstage at City Theatre. (photo: Kris Jan Hoover)

2) It can be hard today to grasp the public impact that Muhammad Ali had in his prime. Boxing was then a much more high-profile sport, and Ali was arguably the most charismatic and unusual athlete that any sport had seen. Everything about him, from his boxing style to his personal style and politics, defied convention. City Theatre presents One Night in Miami, a fictionalized play about an event early in his career. It’s set in 1964 on the night when Ali, only 22 and still using his birth name, Cassius Clay, had just won the heavyweight title. But he didn’t paint the town to celebrate. He spent that night in a private hotel suite with three other prominent African Americans: Malcolm X, football star Jim Brown, and gospel/soul singer Sam Cooke. All present (including the new champ) were in the midst of re-thinking their lives and identities—at a time when struggles and debates were erupting nationwide over the place of African Americans in our society. One Night in Miami, by playwright Kemp Powers, imagines what might have gone on among the four men on that eventful night. 2 p.m. Audio description and open caption performance today. 1300 Bingham St., South Side. (MV) 

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