If English is your first language and you own at least 100 books, I’d lay even odds that one of them is the Complete Works of William Shakespeare. Even if you’ve never read it. Shakespeare’s kung fu grip on the GOAT trophy is impressive for its 400-year title retention and his distant-as-all-hell competition in the rearview. When someone gets to be that untouchable in the minds of academia and the hoi polloi alike, it’s time for a roast.
Adam Long, Daniel Singer, and Jess Winfield had the theatre world hold their beer in the early 1980s when they wrote their ‘matinee improv’-style takedown of the Bard for a Southern California audience – The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged). By the late 80’s, this pop-culture referencing, audience-participation-having, idol-bashing romp through the hallowed iambic pentameter of Billy Shakes had taken Edinburgh and New York, London and many regional stages in between. Richmond Shakespeare just opened their performance of the play last night at the Gottwald Theatre on Grace Street.
It’s fun to review a play that is itself a review of a lot of plays. Let me begin by saying that if you’re coming to this performance looking for anything other than a good time, great laughs, and some playful insights into our reverence for Shakespeare (and the recurring themes, tropes, and structure of his works), go see something else. If you dig taking the piss out of our sacred cows, please buy a ticket, you’ll have a blast.
Productions that are structured to imply collective participation while retaining adherence to an actual script walk a thin line. “Are they making this up as they go along? Are they going to ask an audience member for an improv prompt? Is this what I got myself into tonight?” The answer to these questions is “no”, but if done right, you should be asking them. The play itself is well-written, delightfully insightful about the breadth of Shakespeares oeuvre, and short enough (97 minutes exactly) to amaze for the abundance of rapid-fire jokes packed into it. Like Shakespeare, those jokes run the gamut from thought-provoking to profane and back again.
Sydnee Graves, Rachel Marrs, and Joshua Mullins bring that theatre kid (or “minored in Dance”) energy to the stage with ease, but deserve credit for bringing it in distinct but complementary flavors – like a roll of tropical Starburst. You know the pineapple flavor is different from the mango, but somehow they both taste like the tangerine one. This is a good thing in a cast that whose characters must economize thousands of pages of content into an hour and a half of comment. Their cohesion as a unit makes you hope that backstage theyre all best friends and talk to each other every day forever.
Joshua Mullins, in particular, is running on like a hundred Duracell batteries; his explosive physicality and infectious enthusiasm chew the stage effectively. Rachel Marrs brings the literary snob vibe cheekily and sells it well. I’d love to see her cast in more stuff, ‘kind of a fan. Sydnee Graves plays “straight man” to her castmates’ hijinks without having to roll her eyes dramatically or resort to broadness unbecoming the script – which is saying something because this script is as broad as they come. I enjoyed this cast. In lesser hands, this show could be more groan than grown. With properly placed exuberance and restraint, 97 minutes seem like exactly 97 minutes well-spent.
The stage dressing is minimal, as is becoming of the ‘indie-theatre troupe’ format of the piece. The costumes are often part of the joke, and do their job without much fuss. I cackled at the “OOB” prop sign though. There are a lot of cross-dressing jokes because, well, Shakespeare. The Gottwald space is a great stage, and the lighting/sound aspects brought to bear are appropriate, if not inspiring. Sometimes these elements are only effective when muted, and resisting the temptation to make them the star of the show is where the art lies.
Overall, Joe Pabst directs a fun amuse bouche to the dense, gravy-thick, Elizabethan soul-searching and titty-twisting of Richmond Shakespeare’s titular library of concern. If only there was a way to condense this show to under a minute and have it play before every attempt at Hamlet. James Ricks and Jase Sullivan, Artistic and Managing Directors of Richmond Shakespeare respectively, show a lot of humor and grace in bringing this show to Richmond. I had a great time. I highly recommend.
Purchase your tickets HERE
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