By Martin Brisland.
Shakespeare’s words that ‘one man in his time plays many parts’ seem very appropriate for this production.
Directed and co-written by Adam Long, this is a theatrical compression that is the stock-in-trade of this RSC – the Reduced Shakespeare Company – not to be confused with the Royal Shakespeare Company.
It had a nine year, 3,744-performance West End run. The work has also been seen in over twenty countries.
Before the Reduced Shakespeare Company, Sir Tom Stoppard did something similar in his Fifteen-Minute Hamlet (1976).
More than 2,400 applied to fill the roles and the excellent new performers are Efé Agwele, Woogie Jung, Tom Pavey and understudy Kiran Raywilliams.
There is a micro Othello with a ukulele, and a carnage-filled Titus Andronicus done as a YouTube cooking tutorial. The history plays become a manic football game with a crown passed from one king to the next. Titus Andronicus is done as a parody of a TV cooking show.
The two longest sketches are Romeo & Juliet and Hamlet, both built on the sight gag of a guy galumphing about in a dress and wig as Juliet or Ophelia.
A lot of the fun for the audiences clearly comes from watching Shakespeare not getting the reverence their schoolteachers gave him. The material is genuinely funny, and the cast have a spontaneity that is infectious.
The wordplays and puns come thick and fast. Juliet’s line is given new meaning when she proudly announces, ‘a nose by another other name would smell as sweet.’
Louis Theroux, a school boy when the original version premiered, gets a mention, and there are other contemporary references such as Ozempic. The oldest joke in Shakespearean studies, about the last two syllables of Coriolanus is also delivered.
A contention that the same basic plot is shared by the fourteen comedies keeps the running time to a brisk hour and 40 minutes, including the interval.
The histories are energetically acted out as a football match with neat running commentary and by the end of the first half we have lost two cast members completely, such is the chaos. Woogie Jung is left to kill time solo and resorts to a pre-interval operatic aria.
The second half is all Hamlet with Shakespeare’s longest play explored and even performed backwards. There is audience participation where sections of the audience shout out different parts of Ophelia’s subconscious in a Freudian spin on her breakdown scene.
The finale is raucous, the actors are high-energy shapeshifters throughout, and the show allows for instant connection with the audience.
It is good for anyone craving a light-hearted, high-spirited trip to the theatre.
It is also an excellent watch for young adults studying Shakespeare’s set texts. They will not forget the stories of Romeo Juliet, Macbeth, and Hamlet after this.
The lovechild of improv, stand-up comedy, street theatre, student reviews, and panto, The Complete Works is a pure delight.
If you thought you were coming for a heavy night of Shakespeare, then think again. This show brings Shakespeare into the 21st century.
The vibrant young actors give a modern edge to the performance. If you have teenagers who you want to encourage to go to the theatre or to enjoy Shakespeare, then bring them to this show.
Tickets for The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged), until 18 April 2026 are on sale at mayflower.org.uk or 02380 711811.
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