History, mystery, humor and brutality? See for yourself in OLT’s ‘Equivocation’

History. Mystery. Humor. An inside look at theater. Contemporary relevance.

Oh, and Shakespeare.

These are a few of director Pug Bujeaud’s favorite things about “Equivocation,” the political thriller opening Friday at Olympia Little Theatre.

The play, in which the bard (here called “Shagspeare”) is called upon to write a play supporting King James’ version of the 1605 Gunpowder Plot, also includes two executions.

“It will be very intense, but it’s worth it,” said Bujeaud, who is something of a specialist in intense theater, but was horrified when she researched the history and found a prayer engraved in the Tower of London by Thomas Wintour, one of the play’s characters.

“The English were brutal at that time,” she said. “Executions were messy, drawn-out, torturous affairs. I lost honestly weeks of sleep trying to figure out how to do this in way that is not sensational — how to do this with the kind of respect that these people deserve for what they went through.

“This is the hardest thing I’ve done on stage. Tom Wintour broke my heart.”

The intensity is particularly high because of the intimate scale of Olympia Little Theatre, she said. “You’re sitting right there in the jail cell with Tom Wintour.”

Bujeaud’s “Equivocation” is the second Olympia production of Bill Cain’s 2009 historical drama. Saint Martin’s University produced it in the spring, with Kathy Dorgan at the helm. Both productions were granted rights during the same time slot, Bujeaud said, so Olympia Little Theatre decided to hold off.

She has been waiting to direct the show since it debuted in 2009 at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in Ashland.

“I walked out of the theater, walked across the square and went and bought the play and have been carrying it around with me ever since,” she said. “It was the number one show on my bucket list. I love it. … It’s everything that I want in a show all in one place.”

Bill Rauch, then the Shakespeare festival’s artistic director, had much the same response, as did Dorgan.

“From the first time I read … ‘Equivocation,’ I was hooked,” Rauch wrote in his director’s notes. “I sensed it was destined to join the canon of important new American plays.”

Though she cried when last year’s planned Little Theatre production was canceled, Bujeaud said the timing of the production wound up being perfect.

“I couldn’t have gotten a better cast,” she said, “and I don’t think it would have fallen out the way it did if I’d done it last year.”

The actors — including Drew Doyle as Shag and Brian Hatcher as Machiavellian prime minister Robert Cecil — are unified in their commitment to the play, she said. “I think everybody is in love with this material as much as I am.”

And then there’s the way the show’s political machinations echo what’s happening in Washington, D.C.

“It’s unfortunately more politically timely than it was when it was written 12 years ago,” she said. “It’s about the spin. It’s about propaganda.

“‘Equivocation’ is smart and funny and tragic,” she said. “It’s a wonderful theatrical piece.

“I want everybody in the world to see this. It’s a big, tough show, but they don’t always need to be cotton candy.”

‘Equivocation’

• What: William Shakespeare finds himself asked to write up some fake news in the historical drama “Equivocation,” opening Friday at Olympia Little Theatre.
• When: 7:25 Friday and Saturday plus Feb. 14, 15 and 20-22 and 1:55 p.m. Sunday plus Feb. 16 and 23
• Where: Olympia Little Theatre, 1925 Miller Ave. NE, Olympia
• Tickets: $9-$15
• More information: 360-786-9484, http://olympialittletheater.org