Presented by State Theatre Company of SA, Come Out and the Adelaide Festival Centre
Reviewed Wednesday 30th March 2011
http://www.statetheatrecompany.com.au/season-2011/the-complete-works-of-william-shakespeare-abridged?layout=item
http://www.comeoutfestival.com.au/program/the-complete-works-of-william-shakespeare-abridged
Venue: Dunstan Playhouse, Adelaide Festival Centre
Season: Numerous dates and times. See the BASS web site for details. See the Come Out web site for school performance dates and times
Duration: 2hrs 30mins incl interval
Tickets: From – adults $49/conc 42/under 30s $29 evening performances. See the Come Out web site for school performance dates, times and prices.
Bookings: BASS 131 246 or http://www.bass.net.au or for school performances http://www.comeoutfestival.com.au/program/the-complete-works-of-william-shakespeare-abridged
Written by Adam Long, Daniel Singer and Jess Winfield for The Reduced Shakespeare Company and first performed at the Edinburgh Fringe in 1987, later playing for a nine year run at London’s Criterion Theatre, this play reduces all 37 plays and the sonnets into a couple of hours of hilarity. It is written in a way that it can be modified to suit the time and place of performance by inserting local references, and the fourth wall is non-existent, a couple of audience members even being brought on stage, one to play Ophelia, and the entire audience becoming involved as her id, ego and super ego. Improvisation and ad libs are an expected part of the performance, so every show will be slightly different.
This production is directed by Adam Cook, who sets up a cracking pace for his cast and seeks out a way to combine the extremely funny text with a mass of physical comedy and plenty if visual interest.
The performance begins with an audience warm-up, in which the three performers are introduced and the premise for reducing the Bard’s entire output into one evening’s entertainment is expounded. They then change into way over the top, mock Elizabethan garb and wheel in a brightly coloured wagon that, like the Fringe caravan that toured promoting that event, opens up at the side to become the stage for the performance. On either side are shadow boards for the props, steps lead up to the roof and a fireman’s pole is upstage centre. It even includes a clever reference to Andy Warhol. Ailsa Paterson’s eye catching design, well lit by Ben Flett, is precisely in tune with the performance and allows ample opportunity for physicality. Stuart Day’s music updates such tunes as Green-sleeves and complements the action superbly.
Damian Callinan, Nathan O’Keefe and Mark Saturno are the three intrepid souls who undertake the daunting task of parodying all of Shakespeare’s works, starting with Romeo and Juliet. As this first play progresses one begins to wonder how they will fit in the rest, due to the length of this segment. One quickly find out, as others are dealt with in short order, including Titus Andronicus presented as a TV cooking programme and Othello as a rap song, complete with ‘bling’. They combine all of the comedies into one, since they are, they claim, all following the same formula, and not funny, anyway. The histories become one short game of Australian rules football, with the English crown as the ball, passing from king to king in rapid succession.
The tragedies are reduced to almost nothing, including Macbeth, complete with very funny false Scottish accents, which becomes just the final fight scene. They are about to finish when they realise that have not covered Coriolanus, which O’Keefe refuses to do, pronouncing it Coriol-anus and objecting on the grounds of the obscenity of last part of the title. Suddenly, they realise that they have also missed Hamlet and, again, O’Keefe refuses to do it because of its difficulty, and runs out through the theatre into the foyer.
Until he can be recaptured, they break for an interval, after which they manage to skip the performance of the Sonnets by handing out a reduction of the whole lot onto one small card, which they ask the audience members to read and pass around. Then, at last, they perform Hamlet, four times, and you will discover what that means only if you go to see the production.
At one point, O’Keefe moved to the side of the stage and began to speak, the lights dimmed to a single spot and the laughter gave way to silence as he delivered the “What a piece of work is a man…” speech, from Hamlet Act II Scene II, in a powerful and moving rendition, completely in contrast to the rest of the play, acting as a brief reminder of the genius of the man whose works were being lampooned, and rightly deserving the huge applause that followed.
Callinan, O’Keefe and Saturno bounce off each other all night, seemingly having even more fun than the audience. They inject the play with an enormous amount of energy, rapid fire delivery, loads of sight gags and their interaction and sense of fun is infectious. Sock puppets, an inflatable alligator, a mechanical toy dinosaur and more get in on the act. The audience laugh continually and the evening ends in huge applause.
If you think that you are going to leave with a deeper understanding of, and insight into the works of Shakespeare, then you are going to be terribly disillusioned. This is a very silly, totally irreverent and often bawdy evening of hilarity and mayhem. Presented as part of the 2011 Come Out Festival this is an ideal production for high school drama, English and even art and design students, with a wealth of possibilities for discussion and analysis. It is also a great family show for those with teens and older, as well as adults. Grab a ticket.
Reviewed by Barry Lenny, Arts Editor, Glam Adelaide.
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