Image: First Night original, not an official production poster
Play
The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged)
Three performers set out to race through all 37 of Shakespeare's plays in a single evening, and start arguing almost at once.
First Night is a theatre diary for logging the shows you've seen and discovering what to see next.
The story
Written by Adam Long, Daniel Singer and Jess Winfield of the Reduced Shakespeare Company, the show has no conventional plot: its three performers play heightened versions of themselves, sharing every role as they try to cover the whole canon against the clock. The comedies and histories get squashed together while the tragedies get fuller and sillier treatment, with Hamlet looming as the evening's biggest challenge.
In the room
Fast sketch comedy and parody built on direct address, improvisation, deliberately unconvincing cross-casting and pop-culture pastiche, with the audience drawn in to help, most memorably in the Hamlet section.
Good fit if you like
Shakespeare spoofs, quick-fire sketch comedy and shows that get the audience involved.
Details
- From 12 Jun 2007
Running time not recorded.
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Cast & crew
No cast or crew recorded yet.