What would Shakespeare – or lovers of his plays – make of this?
A complete farce or a complete disaster?
Neither.
“The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged)” might not be everyone’s cup of tea, but it’s a big piece of theatrical fun that maybe we all need at this time.
So stop working from home and go to the theatre for a change. For fun. For a laugh.
While it might not appeal to everyone – what play does? – it certainly goes out of its way to give a receptive audience a chance to sample Shakespeare in a way never seen and heard before.
Yes, there are 3 performers on stage – with an occasional appearance by a fourth (or is he just a stage hand?) – presenting bits from 37 plays. All in 97 minutes. Whether it’s Shakespeare at its funniest or not is for you to establish.
You can certainly – as the Singapore Repertory Theatre bills it – “experience Shakespeare like never before”.
It might well have been “London’s longest-running comedy” and it is certainly “an irreverent, fast-paced romp through the best bits of the Bard’s plays”.
As someone who has greatly missed theatrical performances for the best part of 20 months, it was great to just sit in a theatre again – with safe distances and all other precautions in place – to lap up a show, even if it was very “different” to what we are used to.
But let’s be clear: “Complete Works (abridged)” was certainly up to the usual fine standard set by SRT for the quality of performance and stage presentation. Brilliant!
Full marks to the 3 – or was it 4? – performers who graced the stage, often in a not very graceful way. They were: Erwin Shah Ismail, Tia Andrea Guttensohn and Shane Mardjuki. Plus the often present “stage hand” Dennis Sofian.
Director Daniel Jenkins pulled off an extremely difficult task. I don’t think the original creators of the show – the American-British trio of Adam Long, Daniel Singer and Jess Winfield – gave him the best product to work with. It doesn’t travel well from 1980’s West End – or the Elizabethan stage, for that matter – in my eyes.
If you’re expecting a “tribute show” to one of the greatest playwrights of all time, this isn’t it.
If you’re expecting an irreverent and at times, downright silly, extravaganza on stage, with performers running riot with memorable bits of Shakespeare, this is your show.
I certainly encourage all SRT regulars – and others new to theatre – to go along and experience this show for themselves. It’s infectious in a way theatre needs to be as a distraction from the troubling times we are experiencing.
Do check when the show’s on, as it too has been plagued – as Shakespeare was in his day – by infections of a disabling sort. https://www.srt.com.sg/show/complete-works-shakespeare/