Brush up your Shakespeare/ Start quoting him now ...

“All the world’s a stage, and all the people …. Something, something…” - Me

Usually, it’s suggested to start a body of writing with a profound quotation that truly speaks to the depths of not only the subject matter, but humanity in general.  This summer my company - Trident Theatre - aims to do just that … to a greater or lesser degree, for your comedic delight.  For my first full-length production under Trident Theatre, I will be presenting “The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged) [Revised],” a parodic delving into the full canon of the greatest writer the English language has ever known.

For those of you that may be unfamiliar, the title of this article comes from a musical number in the classic musical comedy, “Kiss Me Kate.”  In the scene, some members of the troupe find themselves onstage in musical adaptation of Shakespeare’s “Taming of the Shrew” and have virtually no idea what’s going on.  So, they make it up as they go along, and make it seem as if they had planned to do what they did onstage from the beginning.  If I were to encapsulate the essence of the play we’ll be presenting … it would almost be exactly that.

Let me clarify: No matter when a company produces a Shakespearean play, there will almost always be an element of the production that may be lost on a contemporary audience.  It could be that the plays come from a different time period in which the manner of staging plays was quite different than today.  Most people (audiences and actors alike) hesitate to do Shakespeare because of the language barrier.  That almost always sounds funny to me, as it’s not a different language; it’s just that he knew how to use it so well.

However, I think a lot of the “lost in translation” feeling has to do with the pre-conceived notion that it almost takes an encyclopedic knowledge of history, mythology, and vocabulary in order to “get” Shakespeare.  While that may be partly true, I will remind my readers that much of Shakespeare’s canon was written for the groundlings, the uneducated and impoverished (and often majority) of Elizabethan audiences; those that could more directly appreciate the truly basic concepts of betrayal, love, murder, and inappropriate humor.  Surely, they couldn’t be better at understanding Shakespeare than a contemporary audience.

So, to set the stage for our production, the idea of performing the entirety of Shakespeare in a single sitting should come across as a tad ambitious, to say the least.  In a line taken directly from the text: “… we are about to attempt a feat that we believe to be unprecedented in the history of civilization.”  So, are we approaching the area of not only hyperbolic, but utterly improbable?  I hope you’re nodding your head.

We do mean to encapsulate the “je ne sais quoi” of the full breadth of the Shakespearean tome, but more than anything to exhibit the utter enjoyment of live theatre altogether.

Again, allow me to elaborate.  One of my favorite qualities of live theatre is not only the audience’s expectation of the “willing suspension of disbelief,” the concept that the audience will believe the “truth” of what is seen on stage for the time that the play is performed, but also the sleight of hand that goes on.  What I mean by this is that, at any time in live theatre, something could and almost always DOES go wrong, but the play turns out just fine in the end.  The pitfalls could be completely against the will of the performers, or from lack of planning, etc., etc.  But, in some way, there always seems to be an element of expectation from the audience that the production could end in a flaming pile of mess.  Not pointing any fingers, but I think we all see the potential in live performances going awry; although we may fervently hope for the opposite, we can see the possibility.

Legendary improvisational theatre icon Keith Johnstone wrote of the phenomenon of denying the audience’s expectations of failure.  In improvisational theatre, the players tell the audience the impossible situation that they set up for themselves in performance, which inspires a measure of doubt in the audience.  Therefore, this convention is almost set in reverse: the audience is anticipating the players to fail, and will be nothing short of amazed if they can get themselves out of it.  Through little more than excellent communication, and laying out new expectations and working to exceed them, the players usually can attain their goal.  If they don’t, the audience is not necessarily let down, as they expected the players to fail somewhat anyway.  But, on the other hand, if the players prevail, then the audience sees the accomplishment as nothing short of magical.

That’s what we intend to do.  We’re telling you right now that we’re going to accomplish something within an hour and a half that is, by standard definition, impossible.  The hope is that, by the end, we’ve managed to do what we set out to do (borrowing another line from the script here): “… to capture, in a single theatrical experience, the magic, the genius, the towering grandeur of The Complete Works of William Shakespeare,” … in a manner of speaking.  What we will accomplish is giving you a sore gut from laughing at us, which in this circumstance, is entirely appropriate.  It is a comedy, after all.

How?  I’ll offer a teaser: for the classic tragedy, we do “Othello” as a rap.  Trust me, not a one of us should schedule an audition for “Hamilton.”  I’ll say no more.  I want to keep that carrot dangling.

Trident will present “The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged) [Revised]” at the Carriage House Theatre Thursdays through Sundays August 3-13.  Please follow us on Facebook (“Trident Theatre”), Twitter (@tridenttheatre), or at our website (www.tridenttheatre.com) for further information on ticketing and showtimes.

I’ll see you at intermission!