I went to the opening night performance by the Reduced Shakespeare Company last night with my friend-in-all-things-literary. The complete works of Shakespeare - Abridged, performed in 97 minutes. All 37 plays, some sonnets, some aprocryphal works and a whole lot of physical comedy, innuendo, quote massacre,puns and play-on-words thrown in.
While most of the plays were mainly touch and go,(All the comedies were lumped together under a skit titled "4 weddings and a tranvestite"), the entire second half was devoted to what is considered Shakespeare's greatest work of all time. (And if you have to ask which one, tch).
The most enjoyable was the incredible versality of the actors, whose multiple talents really kept you guessing at what they are going to come up with next. Adding relevancy with references to popular culture (who hasn't used wiki or google to research eh?), the performance reminded us of the Bard's innate talents as well as his absolute verbosity, his penchant to "distil" other people's works and to pair the most unlikely couples in his many plays (many of whom can be married in various states in the US, as astutuely observed by the players).
If you are planning to watch this, you are in for the laugh of your life. I can't remember the last time I saw the aforementioned partner in crime laugh so hard or lose it so badly.
If you weren't planning to watch this, let me assure you that dont need a knowledge of Shakesepeare's work to enjoy it. Go. Now.
Till 2 August 2009
Drama Centre
Tickets from $19 at Sistic.
2 comments:
Man, I so want to watch the RDC again! Have many a fond memory of The Complete History of America - Abridged. :) But they don't seem Down Under! Boo. :(
Yah, they are quite fabulous. America Abridged was hilarious too. I particularly enjoyed the Dr Suess part.
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