The Complete Works of Shakespeare (Abridged)

The Complete Works of Shakespeare (Abridged)

 

Thursday evening we commenced our weekend at the Madinat Jumeriah Theatre for the The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged). This breakneck parody of the bard was a long running hit in London’s West End and the production at the Madinat marks it’s forth presentation in the UAE where it is clearly a firm favourite among audiences. It was lovely to see the theatre full with such a diverse and enthusiastic crowd of adults, children and teens.

The opening scene begins with the three actors introducing themselves and then launches into an amazing 97 minutes of comedy packed with outrageous puns and contemporary references.

I’m certainly a fan of Shakespeare’s original work and the first play tackled here was Romeo and Juliet. From adding a modern soundtrack to first meeting through to the line ‘Second base is for second dates’ this was no ordinary retelling. Having condensed this epic love story into a mere 12 minutes we were next served a hilarious re-invention of one of the lesser known plays ‘Titus Andronicus’ into a TV cooking show - aptly named ‘Gory Gourmet’. This Tarantino-esque delivery with an abundance of blood and guts makes for a highly memorable presentation!

SEE ALSO: The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged) Dubai November 2016

After a protracted pun on the title “Othello - the moor of venice” the play itself was condensed into a funky a cappella rap song that the kids loved. The irreverence continued as all the comedies where mashed up into a single play and one of the “problem” plays into contemporary dance piece. The drama of the roman empire and ancient egypt turned into a quick “Caesar salad” and led onto my favourite sequence “The Histories”. Here all of shakespeare kings were condensed into an American Football game where the kings were beating/killing each other and passing the crown in the historical sequence. King Lear gets thrown off the pitch for being fictional - an absolutely brilliant touch.

My second highlight was Macbeth, the Scottish accents were remarkable and the energy of the actors bouncing around the stage sword fighting was captivating. The whole second half of the show is dedicated to Hamlet, Shakespeare’s longest play. With lots of really fun audience participation in exploring Ophelia’s inner mind.

The beauty of this show is there’s so many layers and innuendo and it’s fast paced. Meaning that if you don’t know get into one play then then there’s another along in literally one minute.The show strikes the perfect balance of being a light hearted introduction to Shakespeare whilst including enough in-jokes for those with a greater literary interest.

Overall I would highly recommend The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged). There’s great references to popular youth culture for the kids and enough innuendo and funny spins on Shakespeare to keep everyone entertained and raised to their feet for the encore. It’s a great solid piece of entertainment for family and friends.

Prices:

Prices are as follows:
VIP Stalls – 200AED
Standard Stalls – 170AED
Balcony – 170AED