When it comes to a William Shakespeare, it's hard to imagine a spoof of his works. But three young actors of 'Royal Sheikh's Spear Company' managed to pull it off with 'The Compleat Wrks of Willm Shkspr (Abridged)', which was recently performed at Chowdiah Memorial Hall.
Condensing all of Shakespeare's 36 plays and sonnets into 140 minutes of entertainment, it was based on the original script by members of the 'Reduced Shakespeare Company', an American acting troupe.
The play began with a parody of 'Romeo and Juliet', with quick delivery of dialogues and Indianised lines like Oh Nahin when Juliet sees Romeo dead.
This was followed by the gory 'Titus Andronicus' as a cooking show with bloody fingers for dessert. An American football game was made out of the histories, with 'Richard II' passing the ball to 'Henry VIII', who would pause to chop off his wife's head.
'Othello' was made into a rap song with lines like 'This is the story of Othello, He likes white women and green jello'. To the disappointment of some, all 16 comedies were combined into a reading of a mix of characters and plots called 'Four Weddings and a Transvestite'.
Julius Caesar's death was all that was portrayed of that play, while purposely bad Scottish accents lined 'Macbeth'.
The bard's 'Obscure Plays' were also briefly touched upon, though interrupted by a jumping toy dog, which proved to be an amusing prop.
"It was terrific — they were all very good, especially with the number of lines they had to memorise. As a play, it was very creative to watch. I liked the rap version of 'Othello' best," says Mridula, who attended. In Shakespeare's greatest work, 'Hamlet', which is compared to 'Lion King', the audience was involved
by portraying Orphelia's subconscious.
After the first run-through of the full play, they sped it up and performed it a few times more, before finally enacting it backwards.
Improvisation also played an important role, with the actors frequently conversing among themselves, picking on the audience and making it a more relatable experience. "It was very refreshing because it was an interesting take on what we learnt as children. They're playing it safe since there's no benchmark to compare it to. I enjoyed their interpretation," shares Vijay Jacob, an audience member.
Director Karam Vir Lamba, who was often seen wearing a wig and skirt and pretending to vomit into the audience as part of his character, seemed quite happy with the response.
"We were worried by the initial response, but they really warmed up to us. It was one of the most interactive audiences we've performed to," says Karam.
He adds, "It took close to three months to flesh out the script into a full play. My education in Shakespeare's been through this play and working on it let us experience him in the pure form."
Condensing all of Shakespeare's 36 plays and sonnets into 140 minutes of entertainment, it was based on the original script by members of the 'Reduced Shakespeare Company', an American acting troupe.
The play began with a parody of 'Romeo and Juliet', with quick delivery of dialogues and Indianised lines like Oh Nahin when Juliet sees Romeo dead.
This was followed by the gory 'Titus Andronicus' as a cooking show with bloody fingers for dessert. An American football game was made out of the histories, with 'Richard II' passing the ball to 'Henry VIII', who would pause to chop off his wife's head.
'Othello' was made into a rap song with lines like 'This is the story of Othello, He likes white women and green jello'. To the disappointment of some, all 16 comedies were combined into a reading of a mix of characters and plots called 'Four Weddings and a Transvestite'.
Julius Caesar's death was all that was portrayed of that play, while purposely bad Scottish accents lined 'Macbeth'.
The bard's 'Obscure Plays' were also briefly touched upon, though interrupted by a jumping toy dog, which proved to be an amusing prop.
"It was terrific — they were all very good, especially with the number of lines they had to memorise. As a play, it was very creative to watch. I liked the rap version of 'Othello' best," says Mridula, who attended. In Shakespeare's greatest work, 'Hamlet', which is compared to 'Lion King', the audience was involved
by portraying Orphelia's subconscious.
After the first run-through of the full play, they sped it up and performed it a few times more, before finally enacting it backwards.
Improvisation also played an important role, with the actors frequently conversing among themselves, picking on the audience and making it a more relatable experience. "It was very refreshing because it was an interesting take on what we learnt as children. They're playing it safe since there's no benchmark to compare it to. I enjoyed their interpretation," shares Vijay Jacob, an audience member.
Director Karam Vir Lamba, who was often seen wearing a wig and skirt and pretending to vomit into the audience as part of his character, seemed quite happy with the response.
"We were worried by the initial response, but they really warmed up to us. It was one of the most interactive audiences we've performed to," says Karam.
He adds, "It took close to three months to flesh out the script into a full play. My education in Shakespeare's been through this play and working on it let us experience him in the pure form."