This show is a must see ! All of Shakespeare’s 37 plays in approximately 97 minutes .
But if you thought this is serious stuff, you had better think again. This show is about the bards’ works all right, but no literature professor is going to recommend this show to his students.
The play’s the thing Most historians agree Shakespeare was given his nickname THE BARD because of his habit of being kicked out of pubs and being asked never to return. After Will got sloshed and had done something to annoy the management, bouncers would shout loudly to him, ’’you’re barred!’’ and the name eventually stuck. ;-) That is the irreverent attitude that shows up all over the show. A rip-off on the worthy man’s lifetime work, taken apart in less than two hours. Sort of like a college mad-ad show with minimal props and stage settings. All the hundreds of roles played by just three men. Shakespearean dialogues mangled or spoken out of context - all to raise a laugh a minute from the audience. All forms of humour - slapstick, pun, wit and downright tomfoolery are used in the process.
Give me my robe, put on my crown Ezra Bix, Berynn Schwerdt and Tim Schwerdt - three talented Australian actors with absolutely superb comic timing, had the audience rolling around in the aisles. They switch roles in a flash - Tim is playing Queen Gertrude in a gown one minute and in the next, he is King Claudius with a crown. Berynn is the balcony in the ’’Wherefore art thou’’ scene from Romeo and Juliet for a few seconds before he switches back to being the Prologue. All three, I am sure, have done some serious Shakespeare drama in the past, but in this show, they are pure comedians.
Though this be madness, yet there is method in ’t According to the actors, Shakespeare followed a common pattern in all his Comedy plays. So they combined the stories of all the 16 comedies and did a reading that merged characters from Comedy of Errors, The Merchant of Venice, The taming of the shrew, A midsummer nights dream, As you like it, etc. with hilarious results. All in under 10 minutes. The play within a play in Hamlet was done with hand puppets, expertly handled by Berynn. There is a steamy bedroom scene (concocted) involving the king and the queen (both puppets) that ends with King Claudius, the onlooker, exclaiming ’’The lady doth protest too much, methinks’’. Like I mentioned earlier, humour out of an original Shakespeare line spoken completely out of context.
Eye of newt, and toe of frog The Histories (King John, King Richard II, King Henry IV, King Henry V, etc.) were run through as a rugby game where the crown is used like a ball being passed between the players (kings) and there is a running commentary that summarizes each play in rugby/football terms. Titus Andronicus, one of Shakespeare’s most gruesome plays, took the form of a cooking class, where a pie is being made. Incidentally, the main protagonist in the original play kills the sons of his enemy (Queen Tamara) and makes pie out of them. Othello the Moor was executed (pun not intended) as a rap song with the three actors doing the ’’Yo’’ routine perfectly. Like Tim says in the show ’’ The tragedies are better than the comedies for three reasons : they are A Lot..Bloody ..Funnier ’’
All the hall’s a stage Members of the audience were invited to play a role in the show. A young lady from the audience was invited to play Ophelia and do a screaming scene after Hamlet has lashed out at her with his ’’Get thee to a nunnery’’ line. For this, the entire audience was whipped up into a frenzy that reflected Ophelia’s confused state of mind, so that the young lady could ’feel’ the scene and enact the scream. She did manage a very convincing scream, and took a bow with the actors. The three actors also moved freely into the audience seating areas during the show, making it even more interesting.
Et tu, Hrithik ? Local flavour abounded - The actors brought in Indian situations into the show - Romeo sings and dances to the tune of ’’You are my Sonia’’ when he sees Juliet. Ezra did a take on Jackie Shroff playing the role of Hamlet. Hindi and Kannada words were thrown in for good measure. There was a hilarious impersonation of an Indian airhostess at the beginning of the show, going through the safety regulations before takeoff.
This was the unkindest cut of all 36 of the plays were covered in the first half. The second half of the show was devoted to Hamlet. The three actors first did a leisurely treatment of the play, and then did a three-minute version, then a one-minute version. But the point culminant of the show came when the three actors did Hamlet backwards - the scenes were done in reverse order from the dying scene to the introductory scene, the dialogues were spoken backwards and the actions were enacted backwards. Shakespeare must be rolling in his grave.
Done to death by slanderous tongue My favourite line from the show : What’s in a name? That which we call a nose by any other word would also smell.
Get thee to a nunnery The show had a little bit of vulgarity; probably the reason children below 10 are not allowed. But then if you are the type who flinches at the odd vulgar joke or the mention of unmentionable body parts, then I have no option but to use the Bards own words - ’’Get thee to a nunnery’’
Good night, good night! Parting is such sweet sorrow The troupe has moved to Chennai from Bangalore and then will then be playing at Calcutta and Delhi, before returning to Australia.
Friends, Indians, Countrymen, go see this show. Oft expectation fails, but not this time.