"...howl at the antics"

July 11, 2003 performance reviewed by Frances Benn Hall

The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged) is a rowdy romp thru the entire Shakespeare canon of 37 plays in two hours. On the thrust stage at Shakespeare and Co's Founders Theatre, it is trip that involves the audience considerably.

Indeed, at one point the entire audience dutifully rises and with raised hands swears not to divulge the acting secrets of Tina Packer they are about to witness. This is a play that joyfully improvises and bites the hand that feeds it as it goes along.

That the three talented actors, up to such gleeful antics, are respected (and normally respectful) members of the company and can this summer be seen at other times in very different roles, adds to the joy in their clowning.

A perennial favorite and doomed to run for years, this season's version under Tony Simotes' direction has a few changes. Allyn Burrows (who in a different mode plays Benedict in "Much Ado..." to much acclaim) has joined Jonathan Croy and Joseph Hansen, old hands at the play.

Croy plays all the bald roles (as well as a buxom nurse to Juliet). Hansen zips from one dress to another to play all the benighted and bewigged heroines. (Although on opening night, short on an Ophilia, the cast had to bewitch a young lady from the audience to fill in briefly. She did well and seemed to enjoy it.)

In the beginning, this seems to leave Burrows with only the thankless exposition. However, he is soon sucked into the cast demands (because they need somebody to be Hamlet and Macbeth) and he becomes heir to some delightful props juggling when the severed head of Macbeth becomes the skull of Yorick, and when both bear an uncanny and hilarious resemblance to Burrows' own features.

In Act I, Romeo and Juliet hold forth followed by Titus Andronicus as a cooking show (severed hands can be so unseemly otherwise) and a musical Othello. All of Shakespeare's comedies get condensed into one (with the help of placards to sort out all those twins) and the histories become a football match of passing and receiving the crown.

Act II is devoted to Hamlet in all sorts of versions including doing it backwards. (As if doing it fast speed forwards wasn't zany enough!)

Too much happens to be described and that is as it should be. You will want to go and take your children who will howl at the antics as readily as you do. Grade school knowledge of the immortal Will is enough, although having seen a few of Shakespeare and Co.'s other plays won't diminish your fun at this one. Enjoy!.