The Bard, Abridged
Aug. 19th, 2008 11:11 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
magidSunday afternoon I caught the last performance of Gurnet Theatre's edition of The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Abridged (Adam Long, Daniel Singer, Jess Winfield), at the Boston Playwrights Theatre. I hadn't realized how much of it is improv; definitely worth seeing again to see how others spin the text.
As billed, there's bits from all the plays, though this is made rather easier to fit into an hour an a half when most of the historicals turn into one football scene, and all the comedies are smooshed together into one very silly plot, which leaves a bit more time for the rest. Especially Hamlet, which takes up the second half, in a variety of bizarre permutations.
The original show has three actors. This show used seven, most of them rather young. I'd like to see the smaller show, see how that works out (I suspect having more experienced actors would help a lot here). Still, it was a fun romp.
As billed, there's bits from all the plays, though this is made rather easier to fit into an hour an a half when most of the historicals turn into one football scene, and all the comedies are smooshed together into one very silly plot, which leaves a bit more time for the rest. Especially Hamlet, which takes up the second half, in a variety of bizarre permutations.
The original show has three actors. This show used seven, most of them rather young. I'd like to see the smaller show, see how that works out (I suspect having more experienced actors would help a lot here). Still, it was a fun romp.