Love Shakespeare? Not afraid of a little (okay, a lot) of irreverence? If you haven’t seen the extremely silly Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged) by the Reduced Shakespeare Company, it’s time.
Written by Adam Long, Daniel Singer, and Jess Winfield, the show has its origins in comedic Renaissance festival performances inspired Hamlet and Romeo and Juliet.
By the late 1980s, the team had put together a 90-minute performance with references to all of Shakespeare’s plays. The company released a DVD of the show, performed by Long, Reed Martin, and Austin Tichenor, in 2001.
This delightfully ridiculous take on Shakespeare (think the Marx Brothers meet Monty Python) is not for everyone. In my favorite one-star review of the DVD, the reviewer complains, “…this is completely sophomoric humor. I believe the appeal to double entendre and sexual innuendo with such frequency is a lack of creativity.” The appeal to sexual innuendo shows a lack of creativity? Dear reviewer, have you watched Shakespeare?
Perhaps the reviewer was trying to be humorous.
In order to cram all of Shakespeare’s plays into 90 minutes, the writers smashed several plays together and reduced others to single scenes or bare mentions. The histories become a football game, and the comedies are combined into one semi-coherent mess. But it’s a fun mess.
I almost didn’t recommend this performance simply because it may be difficult to find a version to view. It is not currently available for (legal) streaming. The DVD seems to be out of print, but you can still find reasonably priced copies online, and you can rent it through Netflix. It may also be available at your local library.
There’s one other way to see it: live. The Reduced Shakespeare Company has a few 2020 tour performances listed for this particular show, including a late January show in New York as well as shows in California and Virginia. You may also be able to find a performance by another theater company. When I searched for “The Complete Works of William Shakespeare Abridged 2020,” I found upcoming performances by the Chesapeake Shakespeare Company (Maryland), by the M&M Performing Arts Company (New York), and at the Center for the Arts at Kayenta (Utah).
If you love silliness and Shakespeare, seek this show out!
One reply on “The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged) Is Completely Silly”
I am sorry to have never seen this in it’s entirety. I’ve really liked the bits I have seen. And I do hope the reviewer making the comment about double entendre and sexual innuendo was trying for humor since I don’ t see how you can read, or see a performance of, Shakespeare’s plays and miss all the all the double entendres and sexual innuendo. His plays are raunchy.