THE COMPLEAT WRKS OF WLLM SHAKSPR (ABRIDGED)

8pm, Thursday, June 26
8pm, Friday, June 27
330pm, Saturday, June 28
8pm, Saturday, June 28
330pm, Sunday, June 29

Clinton Area Showboat Theatre
Clinton, Iowa
www.clintonshowboat.org
563-242-6760
Tickets $12-$18

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It doesn’t get much nuttier than three guys trying to perform the complete works of Shakespeare in one marathon show, condensed into two hours. And that’s the conceit behind the show written by Jess Borgeson, Adam Long and Daniel Singer – the "Reduced Shakespeare Company" is putting on an (apparently unrehearsed) all-encompassing survey of the Bard’s published works.

The show is playing at the Clinton Area Showboat Theatre, where artistic director Craig A. Miller joins company members Joshua Estrada and Ryan Schabach in the cast of COMPLEAT WRKS. Directed by Meghan Hakes, the production offers laughs – especially to folks who are familiar with many of the plays.

For instance, at the performance I attended opening weekend, some theater patrons apparently were not aware of the subject matter at the heart of TROILUS AND CRESSIDA, or they would have been better prepared for the scenes where this tragedy is re-imagined as a cooking show. Another play is performed as a rap – which could engender cringing from (or offense to) an entirely different segment of an audience – but all in all, the comedic takes on this material are in good fun.

Miller has the role of the "scholar" whose research supposedly inspired the Reduced production, and he plays pompous very well. His aghast response to the frequent antics of Schabach and plaintive wails of Estrada is often at least as funny as whatever he is about to say, and he mugs for the audience with chortle-inducing regularity.

Estrada, the "responsible" one, is entertaining, too. I especially enjoyed his faux-aplomb when the other two actors leave him alone after an argument – he addresses us with what is intended to be reassurance, and scares himself half to death in the process. Estrada’s character also delivers protracted death scenes that just get funnier and funnier.

Schabach, who plays an actor with a mind (more or less) of his own – and Juliet and Ophelia – is a great physical comedian, and he gets major mileage out of pretending to barf on the audience. Hearing him think aloud about his characters’ motivations is pretty entertaining, too.

The energy level – and laughter volume – was higher during the second act of the show I reviewed (though some folks, no doubt offended by the cooking show, did not return), and the Reduced company’s versions, every one, were my absolute favorites.

Hakes and her cast deserve credit for making "bad" theater so bad that it is quite funny, and though the largely juvenile (thoroughly Shakespearean) humor here is not for everyone – you know who you are – this show works pretty darn well.

I had fun with THE COMPLEAT WRKS. Make sure you do, too.

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