Theatre Review: Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged)

Waterbury - “The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged)” is a play written by Adam Long, Daniel Singer, and Jess Winfield. The students of Holy Cross Student Theatre presented this funny piece this weekend only on the stage of their auditorium.

The play is recommended for high school students and above for a few strong words and Shakespeare’s bawdy storylines.

The comedy parodies the plays of William Shakespeare, with all of them being performed in comically shortened or merged form by a small group of actors. The actors use their real names and play themselves rather than specific characters and the fourth wall is all but nonexistent in the performance. The students speak directly to the audience during much of the play, and a few scenes involve audience participation. There is plenty of improvisation involved, and references to pop culture to personalize each performance.

The show begins with the three of the actors introducing themselves to the audience, and then a parody of “Romeo and Juliet” is up first. A caricature of “Titus Andronicus” as a cooking show follows and then “Othello” is attacked.

The rest of the first act summarizes most of the other plays. All the comedies are combined into one convoluted and very funny reading at breakneck speed, since they all simply recycle the same plot devices anyway. The histories are portrayed as an American football game and “Julius Caesar” is shortened to his death, followed immediately by a brief “Antony and Cleopatra,” and “Macbeth” abridged to one dual, complete with lightsabers.

At the end of the act, the characters realize that they forgot to perform “Coriolanus” and also “Hamlet.” At this point, one of the actors flees the stage, chased by another of their castmates, leaving the remaining lead actor alone to improvise before calling for intermission.

After the intermission, the wayward performers return and the entire second act focuses on “Hamlet.” The audience gets involved during this segment when one audience member is asked to portray Ophelia for the Nunnery Scene. The rest of the audience makes up Ophelia's subconscious, divided into three sections representing her ego, superego, and id. After this performance of “Hamlet,” the actors repeat it several times increasing their speed of delivery, and finish by reciting it backwards, as a very funny encore.

Mr. Scott Schulte, a member of the Holy Cross graduating class of 1993 who is now a teacher at Waterbury Arts Magnet School, directed the students with a twinkle in his eye. This is the second play he has directed for his alma mater. Mr. Sean Lewis is the producer.

Mischa Telesford was in charge of costumes that featured colorful tights and shorts. Bethany Gonzalez collected the props, Tyler Parks was in charge of the lights and Ashley Harris did the makeup.

The cast of Holy Cross students include senior Reese Becker, freshman Rafaella Bugaytsova, junior Seth Glinsky, freshman Jillian Guerrette, junior Chassidy Hicks, freshman Sofia Koury, senior Emily LaCava, junior Cecelia Moisan, freshman Makendra Mowad, senior Grace Persaud, junior Jaela Rivera, senior Jack Wang and senior Katie Zhang.

The students performed through clear plastic masks which probably made their lines more difficult to understand, and some of the students could have spoken the lines that they had mastered much more slowly. The students were clearly well-rehearsed.

The printed program contains a helpful list of the complete works of the Bard for those who would like to keep track.

The performances were dedicated to Robert Newport.