By Kathryn Olsen
Utah has no shortage of Shakespeare fans and at the Keith Christenson Little Theater, Front Row Reviewers had the great opportunity to see the Bard’s works in a condensed and hilarious manner in Pleasant Grove, courtesy of The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged) (Revised) by the Pleasant Grove Players. As the title promises, the Players leave no Folio unturned in exploring the works of William Shakespeare through the creative interpretations of Adam Long, Daniel Singer, and Jess Winfield, but it is quite the challenge to fit all thirty-seven plays and over one hundred sonnets into a ninety-seven-minute performance. I saw the unrevised version of this comedy in London years ago and was eager to relive my favorite moments and rediscover the magic.
In the Pleasant Grove Players’ production, real-life grandfather Dennis Purdie, son Jason Purdie, and daughter Isabelle Purdie embark on a noble quest for better understanding of Shakespeare. The grandfather is either a posteminent or preeminent Shakespearean scholar, the father has a strong aversion to anything involving the Prince of Denmark`, and the daughter is more than slightly exasperated by her father’s refusal to let her play the strong female lead in any of the plays. The original work has been updated slightly, so that they lean hard into Stephenie Meyer’s idea that Twilight is a riff on Romeo and Juliet and at least one instance of body-shaming Ophelia has been cut out altogether, but it still retains Titus Andromachus as a cooking show, a barely-intelligible Scottish play that is heavy on the kilts and light on the plot, and the historical plays as a War of the Roses football game. The comedies are mashed up into their common tropes and the show closes with Hamlet, done backwards in two minutes.
Isabelle takes the stage first and shines the hardest in this production. While all of the players have a shtick that is pretty consistent throughout the plays, this is the person who is the most delightfully relatable. Isabella would be a great internet personality for her dramatic reactions to cringe elements of Elizabethan literature and the choreography that looks like it belongs in a TikTok dance challenge. A personal favorite element of the show was her direction of the Hamlet-centric Freudian analysis/audience participation.
On the other end of the spectrum, we have Dennis, who spends a great deal of time trying to get the other two players to take things seriously. He mixes up his biographical lecture so the audience learns that William Shakespeare was born in Stratford-upon-Avon and died with his mistress Eva Peron in Berlin towards the end of the second World War. He deals with leading lady Jason’s bad-wigs-and-gastrointestinal-distress interpretation of everyone from Cleopatra to Ophelia with the air of someone who is used to such outlandish ideas. It’s great fun to see him in the action-packed second half as Hamlet so that it’s not clear if he’s as stodgy as he initially seems or just living up to other generations’ expectations of him.
Jason is the fulcrum and the most free-wheeling of the trio. As mentioned before, he is the Juliet/Bella of the vampire Romeo and Juliet and you have not lived until you’ve seen a Shakespearean heroine in a Bela Lugosi Dracula cape. Given that Act I ends with his refusal to tackle the play, his hysterical commitment to the 45-minute version of Hamlet that makes up Act II is both unexpected and show-stopping.
Directors Howard and Kathryn Little have obviously worked effectively with the Purdies while allowing them license with their comedic instincts. The set has murals that make it easy to transition from a setting in northern Italy to northern Africa with a shift of blocking while the backing music ranges amusingly from “The Eye of the Tiger” to the theme from Jaws.
While much of the humor will go over the heads of younger audience members, many of the sounds of laughter were from older children who enjoyed the physical comedy and simpler jokes. As The Today Show said of the original work, “If you like Shakespeare, you’ll love this show. If you hate Shakespeare, you’ll love this show!” It has something for everyone and would make a great outing for family and friends alike.
This production is running until May 15, so there is plenty of time to brush up your Shakespeare at the Keith Christenson Little Theater. It’ll be a Twelfth Midsummer Night to remember.
The Pleasant Grove Players Present The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged) (Revised); By Adam Long, Daniel Singer, and Jess Winfield
Keith Christeson Little Theater, 30 E Center St., Pleasant Grove, UT 84062.
April 22-May 15, 2023 7:30 PM, See site for individual dates and times.
Tickets: $14-15
Contact: 801-922-4524, pgplayers@pgplayers.com
Pleasant Grove Players Facebook Page
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