2004 SEASON
 THE COMPLEAT WORKS OF WLLM SHAKSPR (ABRIDGED)
By Jess Borgeson, Adam Long and Daniel Singer
Directed by David Ferry
York Shakespeare Festival
August 12-22, 2004
Photo gallery of this production.
 Speaking of The Three Stooges. Imagine those notable classic clowns, or The Brothers Marx, or the various threesomes of Saturday Night Live or Second City doing the complete works of Shakespeare in an hour and a half. Add in a sport motif, because this funny romp through every play in the Shakespearean Canon requires an amazing athletic energy for the three actors performing the show. Oh yes: imagine audience members becoming the Id, the Ego and the Superego for Ophelia in Hamlet - that's where you, the audience, came in - not exactly a cast of thousands but - you get the picture.
Compleat Works has wowed audiences around the world, and whether you are a Shakespearean neophyte, a scholar of the Bard, or someone who (like myself) had the misfortune to have his plays butchered by bad teachers (thus turning me off Shakespeare for a few years) you are bound to be in danger of laughing yourself silly during this production.
Developed by the three founding members of the Reduced Shakespeare Company - Jess Borgeson, Adam Long and Daniel Singer - this production stars Carly Street (breaking again from tradition), Irene Poole and Brendan Gall - all from Much Ado About Nothing.
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| Click on a named text link or photograph of an actor above to view their profile. |
Shakespeare's Histories Hockey Game |
A fall-down funny, non-stop tour-de-force, this show took the audience on a roller coaster ride of all of the Bard's 37 plays in an hour and half, and showed the audience things such as the Othello Rap, the History Play Hockey Game, and Hamlet Backwards. |
Photographs of Brendan Gall, Carly Street and Irene Poole by Greg King (website) |
 Here's a sneak preview of the Othello Rap by RSC & Hughes Hall (Compliments of The Reduced Shakespeare Company - MP3, 128 kbps, 2.8MB)
To listen to this MP3 file you must have a music player installed on your computer. These are free players you can download and install on your computer if you don't have one: QuickTime - RealPlayer - Windows Media Player
Members of the audience were ready to participate (a la Forever Plaid) - Shakespeare will never be the same.
Here are the Bard's 37 plays:
David Ferry
Artistic Producer, Resurgence Theatre Company
2B or not 2B a must C
This delightful Bard-inspired piffle is designed for maximum laughs and minimum dread. It removes the effort in favour of accessible contemporary references and tells us a little about the man, well, kind of.
August 19, 2004 - Article by Anne Brodie, Special, yorkregion.com
2004 SEASON
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