Last Will. & Testament

Debate about the true authorship of the plays and poems ascribed to William Shakespeare has been going on since at least the 19th century (if not earlier). Over the last hundred years, the focus has increasingly centered on one alternative candidate—Edward de Vere, the 17th Earl of Oxford, a well-educated man who was deeply involved in Elizabethan court intrigue. This so-called Oxford theory has been dramatized—not very successfully—in the movie Anonymous (VL-3/12), featuring Sir Derek Jacobi (one of de Vere's strongest adherents), who also appears in this PBS-aired documentary by Lisa and Laura Wilson. Comprised largely of excerpts from interviews with theatrical professionals (such as Jacobi and Vanessa Redgrave), as well as scholars, Last Will. & Testament is supplemented by illustrative artwork and archival material, play excerpts, and period re-creations that provide historical context—as well as an amusing clip from a mock trial on the controversy argued before several U.S. Supreme Court justices. Roughly the first half of the documentary is devoted to observations casting doubt on Shakespeare's authorship, with the remainder given over to arguments in favor of de Vere, and while the coverage is not exactly balanced, critics of the Oxford hypothesis are included. All told, the film makes a sober, visually elegant case for the contrarian view of who wrote the Shakespearean corpus, while also noting that admiration for the works themselves will always transcend the question of their authorship. Recommended. Aud: C, P. (F. Swietek)