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November 28, 2016

Undergraduate Theater Society takes on Shakespeare — all of it! — in fast-paced show Dec. 1-11

Question: How do three actors perform the basics of Shakespeare’s 37 plays and nearly eight-score sonnets, with costumes and props, all inside 100 minutes? Answer: Rather quickly.

The UW Undergraduate Theater Society will perform the high-energy parody “The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged) [Revised],” by Adam Long, Daniel Singer and Jess Winfield, Dec. 1-11 in the Cabaret Theatre in Hutchinson Hall, home of the UW School of Drama. The play’s three performers are Jake Lemberg, Ellie Mondloch and Daphne Sage Gomez.

Director Aaron Jin says the show manages to cover the Bard’s vast canon by “stripping away elements that typically keep people away from Shakespeare, such as the heightened language and iambic pentameter and giving the bare essence of the stories in the funnest, most digestible form possible.”

This results in such oddities as a 12-minute version of “Romeo and Juliet,” a mashing-up of all the Bard’s comedies into one, even the brutal “Titus Andronicus” re-imagined as a cooking show. And since any three actors planning to take on all of Shakespeare at once need help — maybe in more ways than one — the show features an audience participation section as well.

Jin called the show “roller-coaster romp,” especially in the first act. “In the second act we dive a bit deeper and spend the whole time focused on one of Shakespeare’s greatest – and longest – works,” with a little help from the crowd.

“Playgoers can expect an evening of laugh-out-loud comedic relief in the midst of the end of the quarter,” Jin said, “and maybe they’ll want to learn more about Shakespeare!”

Tickets to “The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged) [Revised]” are $5 – $10 and can be purchased online.

Tag(s): School of Drama • Undergraduate Theater Society

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