When Amy Ingram opens The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged) as an officious and very bored usherette, you instantly know that this show is going to send up every theatrical norm as well as the Bard and his works, and will probably involve audience participation as well.
Ingram’s character advises the audience on what to expect, solemnly warning of the violence, mayhem and depravity in the production. It’s a great start to the play and very funny, with the audience already on side.
Each of the three actors use their real names in talking directly to the audience, then enact various Shakespearian characters with extracts and famous lines from the plays. Ingram introduces Stephen Hirst as a Shakespearian expert who, bespectacled and wearing a tweed jacket, waxes lyrical about the Bard. Interacting with the audience, Hirst invites a bright young man onto the stage, who turns into our third actor, Tomas Pocilujko. The actors have mixed opinions, as we find out, Pocilujko being the antithesis of a Shakespeare aficionado who suggests alternative ways to present the plays.
Performed in many tongue-in-cheek formats, the production offers interpretations as diverse as a hip-hop sung rendition of Othello and a Billy Connolly Scottish-accented Macbeth complete with stereotypical tartan caps and red-haired beards. It also turns the gory human-baked pies of Titus Andronicus into a zany and laugh-a-minute cooking program.
The History Plays become a football match where the crown is a ball thrown from one usurped or dead king to the next. Meanwhile, the Comedies are jumbled together with their collective and multiple themes of shipwrecks, mistaken identities, banishments and girls dressed as boys to create some slickly worded mayhem.
Commencing with a longish rendition of Romeo and Juliet, the actors race back and forth playing various roles, concluding with a mournful harmonised tune of ‘They are dead, all dead’. Unsurprisingly, the play’s finale concentrates on Hamlet, where we are treated to not one but two hilarious encores, progressively speeded up. This is followed by a clever version played backwards that could easily have descended into complete chaos but is astonishingly well-delivered with razor-sharp precision to produce a marvellous finale.
All the artists give highly melodramatic, physical performances often playing at break-neck speed interspersed with famous lines. The interaction between the three is one of the most entertaining aspects of this play, their joint personas being as highly-strung as the characters they play. Additionally, there are some well-planned audience participation sections, especially during the Ophelia scene in Hamlet.
Under Darren Gilshenan’s strong directorial control, the comic and clown-like elements of the play are brought firmly to the fore, offering a diverse palette of wit, charm, hilarity and chaos. No joke is left unexplored, neither are the assiduous asides, comments on the text that are often combined with sexual inuendo. Pantomime elements within audience interactions are clearly improvised, but nevertheless well crafted. Gilshenan is assisted in his task by the gifted performances of Ingram, Hirst and Pocilujko, who are a joy to watch.
Penny Challen’s simple cardboard cut-out set of an Elizabethan-styled theatre with three separate doorways enables the actors to enter and exit in true farcical style. Changes of character or costume are achieved for the most part on the run. Delightfully entertaining and absurd, Challen’s costumes include the obvious Elizabethan ruff, breeches and hose, but this expands to female and royal outfits complete with outrageous wigs, crowns, swords and play-specific additions such as Scottish tartan and chefs’ outfits. It is all bizarrely comic and appropriate.
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This is a great fun night out in the theatre, with a marvellous production and three brilliant comedians who give it their all. It should not be missed by Shakespeare lovers or sceptics alike.
QPAC, Woodward Productions and Neil Gooding Productions present
The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged)
By Adam Long, Daniel Singer and Jess Winfield
By arrangement with Music Theatre International (Australasia)
Cremorne Theatre, QPAC
Director: Darren Gilshenan
Set and Costume Designer: Penny Challen
Lighting Designer: Declan O’Neill
Sound Designer/Composer: Brady Watkins
Cast: Amy Ingram, Stephen Hirst, Tomas Pocilujko
The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged) will be performed until 8 June 2025.
