Theatre

William Shakespeares work was performed in the play The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Abridged. It was a mixture of Shakespearian plays which have been shortened and portrayed at a different perspective other than the usual. It was very simple and straightforward to the audience and my first impression was this is revolutionizing. This is one of the main things that I liked about the plays that have been portrayed. It was a different presentation and packaging of Shakespeares plays. This change helped me a lot to understand an overall view of the play in a different form. The plays of Shakespeare were performed differently by just a few actors which also included the audience. This is one thing that I also admired - audience participation. Technically speaking, the play is one of a kind because it distances itself from the usual Shakespearian play which involved tragedy, drama and a lot of emotions. The Abridged version is very entertaining primarily because it utilizes a lot of humorous lines and acts which is integrated in the sequence of plays. I also admired the improvisation skills of the actors and all those involved because most parts of the play were obviously not practiced.

    The start of the play was nice because it utilizes the story of Rome and Juliet in a very different way. I loved the way they did the casting of the Othello and Titus Andronicus. It was very entertaining and surprising as well. Most of the time, the three actors on stage were using day to day situations as a guide on how to go about their improvisations. Most of it was good but there were some parts that I was bored. They went on and touched on different plays in a short time. I could say that the audience was very entertained but there were short periods of time that the audience and I were clueless about whats happening.

    There are quite a few things that I did not like about the play. This was the part nearing the end towards the Hamlet portion where things were getting too much redundant. I am pertaining to the humor level and anticipation level. In my opinion, most of the people watching got tired of the actors improvisations because at some point it becomes redundant and a bit boring. They portrayed the Hamlet quite ambiguously, but I think this was part of their improvisation. Some of the actors run out of the stage and some came in as well to be replacements. I did not like this part because it was turning out to be a circus show due to too much improvisations and humor. I know that the Abridged version is different but I just did not like this part. I would say that at the start of the play up to the beginning of the last half I was still entertained and was enjoying it. However, due to perhaps an overload of improvisation and humor I fell into the abyss of boredom during the later parts. I did not like the overacting done towards the end which included a portrayal of a crazy and nervous actor. I was really bored towards the end of the play.

    On the other hand, generally speaking, I liked the The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Abridged. It was very revolutionizing to watch and it gave me new ideas on how to interpret and understand Shakespearian literature. I would definitely recommend this play to my relatives and friends.