Theater

Nov. 26, 2008

Get Thee to a Punnery!

Newly Revised, Abridged and Made a Mockery of, Shakespeare’s Complete Works is Inanity at its Best

By Dan Hudak

Where were these guys when we were in high school?

Three actors, 37 plays, 97 minutes. Sounds like an impossible task. But for the Reduced Shakespeare Company, anything is possible. Why? Because in The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged)[revised], anything goes.

This is absurdist comedy at its best, a show so revered in its inanity that even Shakespeare-loving Britons extol its virtues (for a sample of the silliness, go to reducedshakespeare.com). But this isn’t just for bard experts; the goal is to poke as much fun at Shakespeare’s plays as possible while keeping it funny for those who’ve never even heard of Shakespeare. You can see the chaos and hilarity unfold starting Nov. 26 at the Carnival Studio Theatre (standing in for the Globe) inside the Arsht Center for the Performing Arts.

The SunPost recently sat down with the show’s director and star, Reed Martin, and told him he can respond as idiotically as he’d like to the questions. “Unfortunately that’s the only way I can answer,” Martin quipped. And away we go.

How does the show play to those who know nothing about Shakespeare?

Then you’re on a level field with us. The whole idea is that these guys [the characters] are too dim to realize it’d be impossible to do the complete works of Shakespeare in under two hours. From there I’d say it’s sketch comedy with a running theme. Some people call it new Vaudeville, meaning highbrow and lowbrow, fart jokes and satire.

 

How do you make the lesser-known shows accessible?

Most of our time is spent with the most familiar stories. We start with Romeo and Juliet, and the whole second act is Hamlet. If you know nothing about Shakespeare, it plays, and if you know a lot about Shakespeare there are a lot of references you can get and feel really smart about.

 

What’s your favorite Shakespeare play?

The Odd Couple.

 

It sounds like you could work some Neil Simon in if you wanted to. But if you had to choose…

It’s hard to knock Hamlet. But one of my favorites is Cymbeline, because of the fairy-tale like quality.

 

What’s the hardest show to make fun of?

The comedies. It’s easy to make fun of murder and sadness, and the comedies — well a lot of people don’t think they’re that funny anymore — so we combine all the comedies into a single play called Cymbeline Taming Pericles the Merchant in the Tempest of Love as Much As You Like It for Nothing, or Four Weddings and a Transvestite.

 

Does anyone in the cast have a British accent?

No, it’s all Americans. Part of the joke in Britain is that three Americans went to Britain and did the complete works of Shakespeare for the British, and they did it the way the British view American attempts at Shakespeare: horribly.

The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged)[revised] is playing in the Carnival Studio Theater at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts Nov. 26 to Jan. 18. Performances are Tuesday through Friday at 7:30 p.m., and Saturdays and Sundays at 2 and 7 p.m. Tickets range from $45 to $50, and are available at arshtcenter.org or by calling 305-949-6722.

Comments? E-mail letters@miamisunpost.com.