another play review..

 I went with a friend to see "The Complete Works of Shakespeare, Abridged, in 90 Minutes" this afternoon. While neither of us are great Shakespeare scholars we did know enough about his plays to enjoy this laugh filled romp very much.  It was a three person show with occasional help from "volunteer" audience members.  Our section 'A Section' of the audience, had the job of waving our arms back and forth in rhythm and shouting "Maybe, maybe not" when called on. The play was performed as theater in the round (or in this case in the square) and the actors did a great job of making sure they faced every side frequently, making it very obvious what they were doing. As an added personal pleasure, it was a joy to me to discover that two of the people in the cast and one pulled from the audience had been in the play "You Can't Take it With You" with me at Arena Dinner Theater last year.  If I tell you that handsome, dark haired, bearded Joe, of the wonderful deep voice, who played the young suitor in YCTWY, was pulled from the audience to briefly play Ophelia and shriek like a girl, you'll get some idea of the nonsense of this play.  That every character in all of the scenes was ridiculously miscast is a gross understatement.  Noel of the gray stubble and chubby body as Juliette may have scarred me for life.  Since this was the last performance of this run, I won't spoil anything for you by describing the finale.  Most of the second act was taken up with Hamlet and when the actors decided at the end that they had a little more time to fill, filled it by a rapid fire recital of the more famous lines from Hamlet spoken backwards while they circled backwards in the middle of the stage,  Believe me this was no easy task.  Imagine "well him knew I Yorick poor alas" at top speed and you'll get an inkling of how it went.  All in all, a delightful way to spend a Sunday afternoon.