"The Last Will"
From Commonwealth Shakespeare & Suffolk University
February 13 - 24

Commonwealth Shakespeare Company and Suffolk University will present Robert Brustein’s final installment of his trilogy about the life of William Shakespeare, "The Last Will," at The Modern Theatre at Suffolk University, 525 Washington Street in Boston’s Theatre District, from February 13 - 24. The state-of-the-art, 185-seat Modern Theatre, build in 1914, is beginning its third season of programming.

After decades of struggle and success in the city of London, William Shakespeare retires to his country home in Stratford. He is in the last stages of a fatal illness, and as his deteriorating mind obliterates the distinction between fiction and fact, the playwright begins acting as a character in his own plays.

Under the delusion that his wife, Anne, is deceiving him with his brother Gilbert, he tries to punish Anne for this imagined adultery by writing her out of his will. Richard Burbage, leader of Shakespeare's acting company, attempts to persuade him to return to London and to playwriting, as Will wrestles with his suspicions, delusions, family resentments, his longing for forgiveness, and final testaments. "The Last Will" is the third and final part of the trilogy playwright Robert Brustein has written about Shakespeare at various points in his career.

The cast includes Allyn Burrows as William Shakespeare, Brooke Adams as Anne Hathaway, Stacy Fisher as Judith Shakespeare, Merritt Janson as Susanna Shakespeare, Bill Meleady as Francis Collins, and Jeremiah Kissell as Richard Burbage.

Commonwealth Shakespeare Company, best known for its annual free performances on Boston Common, is a non-profit organization founded in 1996 dedicated to bringing the works of William Shakespeare in vital and contemporary productions to the people of Boston, and to educating Boston’s youth, not only about Shakespeare, but about their own potential for creativity.

For tickets, call 1-800-440-7654 or visit www.moderntheatre.com.