Three performers will be running, jumping, dancing, screaming and joking through every play that William Shakespeare wrote.
Matt Decker, Adam Shelton and Chris Bauman will be performing the Lost Flamingo Company's version of The Complete Works of William Shakespeare in Scripps Amphitheater (or the Scripps Auditorium in case of rain).
Decker, Shelton and Bauman will be force-feeding the audience a sly parody of every Shakespeare play in short, pop-culture-filled bites.
The original play was written in 1987 and had many outdated jokes. Director Linton Lewis added new jokes, pulling in references to more modern pop culture phenomena, such as Family Guy.
Although the production has some difficulties with lighting and sound because of the outdoor setting, Lewis directs the three actors in a riotous performance that are captivating for the full hour and a half that it runs.
Shelton's shrill faux female voice as he plays Juliet from Romeo and Juliet and his softer gurgling as Titus Andronicus' daughter are just two examples of the hilarity of a three man cast playing all of Shakespeare's characters.
Decker also provides a sidesplitting performance, transforming from a Shakespearean scholar to a televangelist and screaming, This empty brain is your empty brain.
Bauman gets chances to dash into the ridiculous, proclaiming at one point that Newt Gingrich is hot and playing the Juliet-wrestling Romeo.
It's not just the actors who get to have all the fun, however. The audience also gets a chance to dive into a comedic adaptation of Shakespeare's famous tragedy, Hamlet.
The whole play feels like a fast-paced running joke that just keeps building. Most of the individual Shakespearean plays are abbreviated into a few minutes. Hamlet is the longest, running for about 15 minutes, with Romeo and Juliet coming in close second.
With loud Scottish accents, rapping and beat boxing, football and interpretive dance, Decker, Bauman and Shelton change Shakespeare's comedies, tragedies and histories into more easily digestible chunks of story.
While the director and actors have made some of the dialogue, many of the lines come directly from Shakespeare's originals, with a few new words inserted sporadically.
For the $2 admission, The Complete Works of William Shakespeare as presented by the Lost Flamingo Company is an entertaining and worthwhile bargain.
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Matt Canady
