Date: Fri 23-Aug-1996

Publication: Bee

Author: CAROLL

Illustration: C

Location: A10

Quick Words:

Shakespeare-Sherman-theatre

Full Text:

(rev "Complete Works/Shakespeare, Abridged" @Sherman Players, 8/16/96)

Theatre Review-

Shakespeare's Works, Abridged, Are Not Everyone's Cup of Tea

(with photo)

By Julie Stern

SHERMAN - The Sherman Players have just finished staging a three-man comic

revue which purports to acquaint audiences with the complete works of the

greatest playwright in the English language.

Armed with a stageful of props and costumes, the trio - Scott Cox as the fussy

pedant, Peter Pecora as the hairy lout, and Chris Chamberlin as the

long-suffering thespian - romps through its own renditions of tragedies,

comedies, histories and sonnets within the framework of a two-hour

performance.

Some conceits are cleverer than others: On the premise Shakespeare stole his

plots from earlier sources and repeatedly recycled motifs he particularly

liked, the group decides to combine all 16 comedies into one big one - sort of

an As You Like Two Gentlemen Ending Well In Verona During A Tempest On Twelfth

Night... , and so forth.

Othello is presented as a rap number, and, in my personal favorite bit, the

entire audience is drafted to participate in a workshop exercise to dramatize

the Freudian undertones of Ophelia's response to Hamlet, with one group waving

its arms in the air and murmuring "Maybe I will and maybe I won't," while

others are screaming out "Get thee to a nunnery" and "My biological clock is

ticking!"

This show was obviously dreamed up to exact revenge upon the English teacher

who made you read Shakespeare back in tenth grade. In other words, it is the

ultimate in sophomoric humor, and whether you like it or not will depend on

the extent to which you were made to study the Bard against your will, and on

your tolerance for gross humor.