Reviewed by Tony Annicone
Burbage Theatre’s latest show is “The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged)” written by the Reduced Shakespeare Company. The show is a parody of the plays written by Shakespeare, all 37 plays in 90 minutes. It is an irreverent, fast-paced romp through all the Bard’s plays in shortened form by three actors. The actors speak directly to the audience during much of the play and some scenes involve audience participation. Improvisation plays an important role with the actors deviating from the script. They open the show with a parody of “Romeo and Juliet”, then combine the comedies into a convoluted reading by stating that they recycle the same plot devices and they do this while wearing red noses. They then tackle the histories and the tragedies. The second act is a very hilarious performance of “Hamlet.” Jeff Church directs the talented and energetic performers in the show wonderfully, bringing a lot of shtick and slapstick antics to keep the audience entertained for the whole performance. They win a resounding standing ovation at the end of the show!
Jeff gives his performers their moment to shine in the show. Jeff, Andrew Iacovelli and James Lucey are brilliant in this show while playing multiple characters. Andrew starts off describing Shakespeare’s birth and so on only to screw it up with also saying he wrote “Mein Kampf” and lived in Berlin. Their are political comments including McConnell as a turtle. Some highlights include the Scottish play being reduced to one duel while they explain it in funny Scottish accents while all the histories are acted out as a football game with a crown as the football. They also reduce “Othello” to a rap song since none of them are black. “Titus Andronicus” is done as a cooking show with Jeff as Titus who chopped off his hand and Andrew as his daughter who is missing both hands and her tongue while they chop up James for dinner. Near the end of the first act they realize they haven’t included the most famous play of all and Andrew runs out pursued by Jeff. This leaves James all alone to call for intermission.
Before the performers return, James hands out a list of the sonnets for the audience to pass around to read and when Jeff and Andrew finally return they are now able to devote their time to “Hamlet.” It is delivered several times with the speed of delivery increased each time. They finish it backwards the final time which leaves the audience in stitches. A woman in the audience is asked to play Ophelia for the nunnery scene. The rest of the audience is asked to play her subconscious and is divided into three sections to play her id, ego and super ego.
Some of the performers best moments include when James is Romeo, Polonius, Laertes and dressed as Juliet’s nurse. Jeff is hilarious as Hamlet especially in the puppet segment when the two puppets start humping each other and in another when he takes out his willie which is really a manuscript. Andrew is a hoot when he is disguised as Juliet, Ophelia, wearing wigs and then runs out into the audience while pretending to vomit on them. He wins much laughter then and later when Ophelia drowns he pours a glass of water into his face. The Hamlet sequence has to be seen to be believed. So for a rip roaring evening of entertainment and merriment, be sure to catch this rendition of Billy Shakespeare’s shows. You won’t stop laughing all night long.
THE COMPLETE WORKS OF WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE(Abridged) (26 July to 5 August)
Burbage at the Brewery, 461 Main Street, Pawtucket, RI
1(401)484-0355 or www.burbagetheatre.org
