All's Well That Ends
Imagine you are in your kitchen cutting vegetables, when three men whose physical differences could very well distinguish them as Larry, Curly and Moe, burst into your house with a knife, a wig and suspenders. These men then proceed to scream, stab, play poker, organize a bar mitzvah, fly to London and back, and then do it all again backwards and faster. This would be about the same experience as you would get at SVU's theater production "The Complete Works of William Shakespeare Abridged".
"The Complete Works of William Shakespeare Abridged" which for brevity's sake we will now refer to as "The Complete" is a comedic parody of William Shakespeare's theater productions, psychology, academia and soap operas. The humor used to draw those laughs plays like a bipolar schizophrenic, in many moments managing to utilize low-brow slapstick humor, witty pop-culture references, and ingenious puns and wordplay.
All of this is made available by an all-star cast composed of Brigham Doxey (playing himself), Caleb Dransfield (playing himself) and Kjell (pronounced Shell) Henness (also playing himself). Brigham and Caleb will be familiar to long-time SVU theater goers, with both bringing the usual wit and charm they bring to all productions. Kjell is the relatively new kid on the block, despite being a junior, and he proves himself capable as an actor and a perfect complement to the other two as a comedian.
The joy of this play lies exactly in how it is cast. That is, each person is cast as themselves. It's very easy to sell an audience on a character when that character is yourself. This leads to brilliant moments such as when Kjell is left alone to deal with stage fright, an exploration of Ophelia's subconscious, and the "Othello" skit. These moments all feel like something you would find in any slightly nerdy college bros apartment on a Saturday night. In the best spots, the laughs flow naturally and the actors are perfectly at ease just being the funny guys that they are.
One of the great acting feats that this production does superbly is the great art of improv. To paraphrase John Rhys-Davies (Gimli from The Lord of the Rings), "ninety percent of improv is by its very nature, terrible". I went into this play knowing there would be spots specifically set aside in the script for improv. Thus when our three musketeers were actively involving the audience, I was pretty sure most of it was staged. Then they had me stand up and run around like a lunatic, which I was not expecting. Now, I can't really tell what was staged, and what was them just making up funny ways to interact with the audience. That is the true indicator of how well they nailed it in my opinion. It is hard to tell when they are following a script, and when they are flying by the seats of their collective suspender held pants.
That's not to say the play is without its problems. Laughter is by its nature a very hard thing to sustain, and the length of the production didn't do anyone any favors. By the intermission I found myself a little fatigued by the constant smacking, falling, screaming, and constant puns. Adding to this is the fact that not every joke is going to hit, and not every joke did.
These minor complaints aside, "The Complete" is in my opinion, a "triumph", to borrow Kjells words. With a knock you down opening of "Romeo and Juliet" and a slam bang finisher of "Hamlet", "The Complete" starts hilariously and ends with everyone feeling happy. It's satirical boy scout humor that gives everyone a chance to shine and is something of which everyone in the theater program should be proud. Finally, props (heh heh) to the set designer, production crew, costume folks and other backstage crews. You all did a fantastic job.
