A friend invited me to go to a matinee play at the Academy for Performing Arts yesterday. The poster touted the play would condense all of Shakespeare's 37 plays into 97 minutes. Wow, this aroused my interest immensely. I could read through two plays in that time frame, but all 37? Impossible!
It turned out to be a three men play that attempted to engage the audience into a roller coaster ride abridging and condensing the work by the Bard. It began with Romeo and Juliet, which was amongst the three plays the trio spent the most time on, about eight minutes each. The other two were Othello and Hamlet.
I laughed and coughed the most when they debated how and who should play Othello, since he's a Moor and supposed to be African. They are all whites. There were a few racial jokes, but they finally decided to rap the lines. It was hilarious.
The last play was Hamlet and the best part was Hamlet's "to be or not to be" soliloquy that one of the actors recited nonchalantly. It was the longest and most serious recital of the play but he added afterwards saying, "I didn't know what it meant either." This was wildly funny.
I was a little surprised there so many kids at the play, most likely because it's a matinee show. There were quite a few puns and terms I thought would escape them, but the kids understood and loved them. I guess it's the talent of the actors who managed to draw the audience in, even kids. I read that it's the longest running comedy in Britain. Hats off to the Reduced Shakespeare Company trio!!
p.s. Apologies to my friend, who had to endure my coughing in between the laughs.
2 comments:
It all sounds like a fun time of entertainment you had there~!
Sometimes, it's so nice to just sit and purely enjoy the fruit of talented people, isn't it?
There sure was abundant talent on display and was immensely enjoyable :)
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