**Phil Somerville, Kathleen Tapuke-O'Neal and Jess Riley promise a different take on the works of Shakespeare. Photos: Supplied by Centre Stage**

The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged and revised)

Reviewed by Chris Marshall

Shall I compare thee to a Shakespeare play?

Thou art more lively and more contemporary…

Centre Stage’s production of ‘The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged and revised)’ is a sprint through the Bard of Avon’s body of works with a particular focus on a couple of his greatest hits.

Don’t worry about the 154 sonnets, they are pretty much passed over or around.

While the Adam Long, Dan Winfield and Jess Singer-penned spoof borrows from the texts, it is a playbook liberally dosed with modern dialogue as three actors set themselves the task of presenting Shakespeare 101.

And in a way their interactions are not without their own story line: Phil Somerville the emotional ‘pre-eminent’ scholar (with an emphasis on the prefix pre-), Jess Riley, the naïve ingenue prone to malapropisms, and Kathleen Tapuke-O’Neal, the grounded one amongst the groundlings who soldiers on, all have to interact as themselves while acting and coping with cheap props and a multitude of wigs.

**Phil Sommerville hams it up as Hamlet.**

The players acquit themselves admirably, considering the number of roles they have to adopt, number of lines, quickfire costume changes and entrances and exits.

Somerville’s attachment to Shakespeare’s works and his own treatise on it come in for a bit of a drubbing but without his pomposity, we couldn’t have Riley’s impatience and incomprehension blossoming into a greater understanding of the layers of language and character. Tapuke-O’Neal bounces off and between these two, demonstrating her versatility in playing Romeo as an Elvis lookalike, Laertes as a homeboy and even the odd female like Gertrude Queen of Denmark, Hamlet’s mother.

She also proves a dab hand at hosing situations down before they get beyond a GA rating, though being a derivative work there are still plenty of double entendres pulled out of the breeches.

As director Toni Sullivan has intimated: if you don’t like Shakespeare, then this is the Shakespeare to watch, and if you do, you will get the in-jokes.

You might not know where some of Shakespeare’s most famous quotes fit in – and ‘The Complete Works’ will not help you get it right in your next online quiz – but you will laugh at the context this trio manages to shoe horn them into – cooking shows, sports commentary and, tragicomically, the Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice, sung to Da Doo Ron Ron.

Having the playhouse laid out in the round means no-one is too far from the action – good for the audience but another potential challenge the actors must overcome.

No swot needed for this test of how good your Shakespeare knowledge is, but in the words of Willie himself: “Prepare for mirth, for mirth becomes a feast.”

‘The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged and revised)’ by Adam Long, Dan Winfield and Jess Singer is on at Centre Stage, 2 Matai Street, March 18-28.

Bookings can be made through the Centre Stage website What's On | Centre Stage Taupo Community Theatre