Sadly (perhaps) we know very little about the facts of Shakespeare’s life so trying to piece things together from details about his company of actors and the circumstances surrounding their working life is a tantalizing way of getting closer to a rounded picture of ‘The Swan of Avon’, as Ben Jonson called him. 

Of Will Kempe, Shakespeare’s leading comic actor and otherwise star turn at the Globe we do have one solid fact on which to hang a tale. Having resigned from Shakespeare’s company at the Globe after some disagreement, he jigged and danced from London to Norwich as a publicity stunt and bet. This fact alone tells us something of the character of the man.

A notorious scene-stealer, and darling of the groundlings it is very likely that Hamlet’s injunction to the players to make sure the clown only says what is written down, was a jibe in his direction. We can imagine the hoots of laughter at the first read through of the play.

Bringing such a character to bounding life would be a tall order. Tortive Theatre has him outside the Globe throwing verbal brickbats at Shakespeare in the course of telling his tale to a mouse, the only audience he can now muster. Robin Leetham, resplendent in the fool’s motley, shows us a Will Kempe down on his luck, a somewhat bitter man with nothing to show for his time at the top of his profession other than his memories. Gone is the physical dexterity – he can barely drag himself from his drunken stupor – and the verbal wit a mere echo.

Perhaps the main weakness of the play is the lack of a narrative thread, with episodes from Kempe’s life simply falling into some kind of chronological order. Shakespeare’s Dark Lady of the Sonnets flits momentarily into view only to vanish before we can get a good look at her. Again the queen gets a mention as a dynamic force that fills the room and dominates all by her presence.

For all that the play fits a small piece into the jigsaw that makes up Shakespeare’s life, there are simply further questions it raises. For example it would be interesting to know if Kempe’s original performances influenced later interpretations or whether he was simply a one off. As with Shakespeare’s life there are things we will never know.

The show offers an interesting view of the life of an Elizabethan comic actor who rubbed shoulders with some of the greats of the age.