Review: Enjoy a raucous evening of Shakespeare spoofing at Little Theatre of Norfolk
Tell me which word does not belong: “Reynaldo! Osric! Voldemort! Guildenstern! Fortinbras!” (List order is modified from the script for optimal reader consternation.)
If you recognize that A) the list is composed mostly of the dramatis personae from “Hamlet” and that B) Voldemort sneaked in from a Harry Potter book, you are A) an English major or B) required to attend a raucous evening of Shakespeare spoofing at Little Theatre of Norfolk’s “The Complete Works of Shakespeare (Abridged) [Revised] [Again].”
The show summarizes vast numbers of real and fake Shakespeare titles and lines in the shortest time possible. The Complete Works by the founders of the Reduced Shakespeare Co. (RSC — get it? Its initials are the same as the Royal Shakespeare Company) offers more freedom for pure improv on contemporary and local topics (LTN goes a bit far with said freedom), but first let’s give the cheeky original authors’ names. They are Adam Long, Daniel Singer and Jess Winfield and, yes, there are multiple revisions to the original 1987 show. The authors are so vain and savvy that they name the characters after themselves: Adam, Daniel and Jess.
This offers special (but thoroughly legit) challenges when Hannah Brown plays Daniel; Giuliana Mortimer plays Jess; and Lori Thurman plays Adam. Yes, they are all women underneath those codpieces, but padding resolves that issue, and let’s hear no more about it. Brown is the linchpin of this production — funny, bossy and essential. Mortimer and Thurman hold their own, however, playing women playing men (as men played female roles in the Elizabethan day) for maximum silliness. We never forget that any of our actors are women, even and especially when Brown renders snippets of Polonius’ famous “to thine own self be true” speech in a silly, slipping beard.
Costumes (by Meg Murray) and props are everything in designed-to-be-silly shows, and director Patrick C. Taylor must have given props manager Lori Dunn access to a credit card. She gives us remarkably ridiculous items such as a sword gun, an oversized thumb (“Do you bite your thumb at me, sir?” in “Romeo and Juliet”), a rubber Yorick’s skull, and a feeble (intentionally so) moon, raised and lowered sort of on cue for several scenes. Did I mention the glittery codpieces? Does everyone realize a cod (in this case) is not a fish, but instead a “baloney pony,” according to this script? I can say no more uncensored. So how do Little Theatre artists summarize Shakespeare’s 37 (or 38 or 39 — there’s controversy) plays and 154 sonnets in about 90 minutes?
They use the time-honored method of “embedded spoofing strategies.” (I just made up that term.)
English teachers and pompous literary critics (watch out there) are being teased big time. But, at the same time, famous interpretations by, say, Freud, are rendered more or less correctly. Here are some samples: “Hamlet is playing out sublimated childhood neuroses, displacing repressed Oedipal desires into sexualized anger toward Ophelia.” Well, yes. That is what Freud implied in his writings on Shakespeare.
J. Stubbs PhotographyLittle Theatre of Norfolk cast in “The Complete Works of Shakespeare (Abridged) [Revised] [Again].” The production runs through Aug. 25.The show continues: “The superego is that jumble of voices inside your head that dominate your moral and ethical behavior. It’s very powerful, very difficult to shake…” In the original, the character Adam pipes up to say, “Sorta like Catholicism.” LTN’s Adam says, “Sorta like Scientology.” It’s a safe bet there are fewer Scientologists than Catholics to offend in a Norfolk audience. But that’s the sort of revision the playwrights seem to encourage (as opposed to playwrights who will sue a theater for copyright violations). It’s a sure bet that the local Orapax restaurant wasn’t mentioned in the original script.
Our locals also added a lot of shtick (a bit too much) about TV’s recent hit “Bridgerton.” Other TV-inspired embedded spoofing strategies include something modeled on “The Great British Bake Off,” perfect for explaining the gory plot of “Titus Andronicus,” which makes “Sweeney Todd” (next show up at LTN) look like a Disney children’s special. (The mentions of “Sweeney Todd” during this show become a tad excessive.)
There’s the embedded spoofing strategy on technology — good for mentions of cellphones, including the priceless “T-Mobile Kinsmen” (in place of “Two Noble Kinsmen”). There’s a sports spoof used to summarize all of Shakespeare’s history plays as a super-fast football game played in the theater’s center aisle with a soft crown being passed and fought over instead of a football. “Julius Caesar” is done as “Mean Girls;” the Scottish Play is done with burred speech, kilts and golf clubs. (Yes, there’s a real “Complete Works” on my knee for reference.) There’s an ongoing spoof on diversity, equity and inclusion — DEI — with frequent mentions of patriarchy, racism and injustice (especially good for our three females playing males-who-sometimes-played-females). That helps in covering comedies and tragedies.
Although the local references need tightening (speed being of the essence), what’s being done at LTN is just what the authors intended with sharp satire coming from a place of love and not pure anger. The more you know Shakespeare, the more you’ll laugh at his older, dragon-less version of “Game of Thrones” (a local script addition). Shakespeare haters need not apply. Just remember to join in or duck when everybody else laughs.
Bring it on home, Will: “Though this be madness, yet there’s method in it.” (Hamlet.)
Page Laws is dean emerita of the Nusbaum Honors College at Norfolk State University. [email protected].
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If you go
When: 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays and 2:30 p.m. Sundays through Aug. 25
Where: Little Theatre of Norfolk, 801 Claremont Ave.
Tickets: $18, advance; $20 at the door
Details: 757-627-8551, ltnonline.org
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