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WILL 'N SHAKESPEARE - EPISODE ONE: BARRED FROM STRATFORD - THE FINAL CHAPTER
By Tim Lane

GENRE: Comedy, Historical
LOGLINE: The great British icon suffers the slings and arrows of outrageous farce when an illiterate English twit, Will, and a black fry cook, Shakespeare, team up to become the world's single greatest playwright.

SYNOPSIS:

Thirty some odd years ago the British comedy group, Monty Python, made the blasphemous movie “The Life of Brian”. I thought surely God would smite them. He has not. They made fun of Jesus, now, it's payback time… we make fun of them. Okay, so you can't make fun of comedians… they enjoy it too much… and, we can't make fun of the royal family… it's just too easy. We take on another British icon: William Shakespeare. Who was, in fact, TWO people. It wasn't William at all. It was Will 'n Shakespeare. Will was a twit… an English peasant… an illiterate, who wanted to be a playwright… a playwright who can't read or write… but a playwright nonetheless. Barred from Stratford-on-Avon by his own father, he travels to London with his Mum to work at his Uncle Omelet’s Beggars Guild. On his first day he manages to have the guild shut down by the sheriff for fraud… seems all the beggars were faking their afflictions. No longer allowed to use their acting skills on the streets they form a theater group. But, they need a hook, something that will draw in high society… and the big bucks… something that nobody really understands but thinks they do… you know, like opera or ballet. Enter the owner of the Black Fryers, a literate, black fry-cook. His given name no one can pronounce. It means: easy to anger; not one to shake a spear at. That’s right, Shakespeare. Up to this point everyone has been talking like Brits normally talk… you know, that cockney stuff, or some other low brow accent (Scottish, Irish, etc). But, out of his mouth comes this lyrical phrasing… that… that nobody understands… except the street-smart Juliet, who is fluent in Elizabethan Ebonics. Will provides the plots and Shakespeare; the dialogue and now it's a race to have a successful opening night before the sheriff can close them down. And on the way we skewer as many British literary, theatrical, cultural icons… and a few Monty Python bits… that we can. And may God have mercy on their souls.

WILL 'N SHAKESPEARE - EPISODE ONE: BARRED FROM STRATFORD - THE FINAL CHAPTER

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