The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged) review – this brevity is the soul of wit

Bristol Old Vic
The Reduced Shakespeare Company returns with a frantic mix of pratfalls, audience participation and lightning-flash characterisations

A classical actor who appeared in a recent production of Othello told me that the cast was alarmed by the murders being met on many nights by blasts of laughter. This may be due to audiences having seen the Reduced Shakespeare Company’s 1987 show The Complete Works of Shakespeare (Abridged) during its long West End runs or world tours. Or other examples of the trend for carved-up Bard that this “RSC” founder Adam Long started, including Spymonkey’s The Complete Deaths, making central an incidental aspect of Long’s shortening: the climactic body pile-ups.

At Long’s revival, it is apparent, from interval conversations, that many who were taken to The Complete Works as teenagers are now bringing their own. Topical tweaks acknowledge this. Louis Theroux, a sixth-former when the original version premiered, has grown up to get a gag in this iteration, as have other contemporary phenomena, including Ozempic.

At Bristol Old Vic until 28 March. Then touring until 11 July