[NEohioPAL]Berko review: COMPLETE WORKS OF SHAKESPEARE (GLTF)

[Roy Berko]

FUNNY  ‘COMPLETE WORKS OF SHAKESPEARE’  AT GLTF,
BUT....


Roy Berko

(Member, American Theatre Critics Association)

--THE TIMES NEWSPAPERS--

Lorain County Times--Westlaker Times--Lakewood News
Times--Olmsted-Fairview Times	


What do rush week at Ohio State, wardrobe
malfunctions, Lebron James, Brad Pitt’s movie ‘TROY,’
Arnold Schwartzennager, the Olson Twins and Red Bull
all have in common?  They are topics, along with 37 of
Shakespeare’s plays, well, pieces-parts of those
plays, and a zillion poop, vomit and penis references
in ‘THE COMPLETE WORKS OF WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
(ABRIDGED).’  The show is now on stage at the Great
Lakes Theater (Shakespeare) Festival.  

Think you’ve seen Shakespeare?  NOT LIKE THIS!

To put the show into perspective, picture this:  The
Shakespeare’s 17 comedies, 10 histories, and 10
tragedies performed in only 90 minutes.  The trio of
actors (Lynn Robert Berg, Jeffrey C. Hawkins and M. A.
Taylor) present ‘OTHELLO’ as a rap song, ‘TITUS
ANDRONICUS’ as a cooking show and ‘MACBETH’ as a
conflict between McDonalds and Burger King.  They
perform HAMLET with a puppet show and audience
participation, then in double time, and then
backwards.   Why?  Because, as the trio explains, 
“Life is short and the complete works of William
Shakespeare are long.”

The three overgrown pranksters, who appear to fully
enjoy their descent into adolescence, include in their
antics lots of slapstick, innuendoes and mindless
banter. Their unassuming manner allows them to
interact with the audience with ease.   You cannot
help but like these guys even if you don’t appreciate
what they are doing with the world’s greatest
theatrical literature.  But, that’s the point.

The actors wear Shakespearean-style costumes with
high-topped sneakers.  There is the obligatory fog,
lightning, doom and gloom, the three door-set, but
also a mustached, heavy-set actor, who plays all the
women’s roles, prancing around in dresses and curly
wigs, with a goofy, blushing grin on his face and
feigning barfing on audience members.  Note:  If you
are sitting in the first couple of rows, be prepared
to be picked on and “volunteered” into being a member
of the cast.

The cast is universally good, but not as hysterically
funny as Adam Long, Daniel Singer and Jess Winfield,
the Reduced Shakespeare Company, who conceived and
performed the work for many years.  And, though the
script “localizing” and “updates” is often clever, it
is also sometimes inane.   Without intending to sound
prudish, there are an awful lot of poop and penis
jokes that appear to be unnecessary to achieve the
intent of the piece.  

‘THE COMPLETE WORKS OF WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
(ABRIDGED),’ is an irreverent romp through the Bard's
plays.   The show, which is in a very long run in
London, and has been done in many US venues, has been
praised as "wildly funny" and "the funniest show you
are likely to see in your entire lifetime."  The GLTF
doesn’t exactly live up to that level of praise. 

Capsule judgement:    If you are willing to put aside
your thoughts of what Shakespeare should be, and will
yourself (pardon the pun) to be part of an assault on
Shakespeare and lots of other topics, you will enjoy
yourself.  If you have no sense of humor, don’t like
slapstick, and are a Shakespeare purist, stay home! 

‘THE TAMING OF THE SHREW’ and ‘THE COMPLETE WORKS OF
SHAKESPEARE (Abridged)’ are running in tandem through
August 22.  For tickets to any GLTF production call
216-241-6000 or 800-766-6048.



=====
Roy Berko's web page can be found at royberko.info and many of his theatre and dance reviews appear on artscleveland.net.


		
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