Photo courtesy of J. Stubbs Photography (https://jstubbsphotographyvb.com/)

Walking into the Little Theatre of Norfolk for “The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged) [revised] [again]”, I have to say, I was pretty worried.  In fact, I turned to my wife and father-in-law and said “I’m not sure I’m well-versed enough in Shakespeare to get a lot of the references”.  We turned first to LTN’s Green Room, where a really fun game of match the props to the Shakespeare play awaited us.  I quickly chose to do the “easy” version of the game – and, just as quickly, totally failed at the game.

Not to worry Hampton Roads community – it quickly became clear that there were no prerequisites or assigned summer reading necessary for having a really fun time at this play.  As the curtain opens, we are greeted by the self-serious, all-Shakespeare knowing and loving Giuliana (Gigi) Mortimer, as well as Joseph White’s very fun set, made to look like it was just thrown together.  It seems that Gigi has gotten a couple of friends together – facial expression specialist Hannah Brown and the hilarious and over the top Lori Thurman – and they will, somehow, by sheer force of will, put on Shakespeare’s entire collection of 38 plays… all in the next two hours, before some guy named Sweeney Todd takes over the theater. 

The series of “Complete Works…” comedic performances, originally produced by Reduced Shakespeare Company, seem to always be a really fun time (we recently saw “The Complete History of Comedy” at the American Theatre in Hampton and enjoyed it).  What was particularly fun about this version was that this cast (who did a wonderful job being totally bought into their roles), along with director Patrick C Taylor, seemed to take a fair amount of liberties with the pop culture references brought in, and bring a local flavor to the play, making it feel as if it was being improvised on the spot (which, I believe some of it was, as the cast interactions with the audience were some of the best parts).

Anyways, perhaps driven to complete their task more quickly by the aforementioned demon barber, Gigi, Hannah, and Lori actually get through 37 of the 38 plays before intermission – which was especially good for me, as they led me to a much better showing in the Green Room activity when I went back to complete it.  Also, it allowed for Meg Murray to show off her costume design skills, as each of the three cast members probably had at least ten outfits, with many of the costumes fitting over or around others so that the cast could change characters while on stage. 

They save the best of Shakespeare for last (or at least, the best according to our friends in “Something Rotten!” over at PCT) – the entire second act is dedicated to a hilariously abridged version of “Hamlet”.  One of our favorite parts was when the cast leads the entire audience in a character study, creating the inside of Ophelia’s mind throughout the entire theater as she takes in Hamlet’s order to “get thee to a nunnery”.  You will wish you had such a visual aid to help remember the ins and outs of every character’s feelings when you inevitably had to write an essay in high school about something out of Shakespeare. 

This play is meant to be a fun time, leaving audiences smiling as they walk out, and that is exactly what LTN delivers.  We did not, however, happen to see Gigi, Hannah and Lori after the play – here’s to hoping Sweeney Todd didn’t get his hands on them for going slightly over their allotted time.