The Reduced Shakespeare is a very refreshing and entertaining play and from my observation, a farce is more to it. Only presented by three talented and brilliant actors, the play had introduced me into another genre of play which is farce and comedy. I believe all of us, the so-called “audience” as we were watching a performance, staged without the element of aliveness and immediacy, really enjoyed and entertained by the performance. I, for instance, croaked because of so many laughs after watching it for two- sweet -hours.

I admit that at first, I could not make out some of the messages, conveyed by the actors, but later, I felt I understood better. The setting and props used were very simple and not very impressive, but i think the limitation of props that had made the farce funnier! It is rather extraordinary how they acted the reduced Shakespeare’s plays, according to their own interpretation.

I like it very much when they put on various kinds of performance, such as narration of Othello with some sort of rap style, a combination of some Shakespeare’s plays and also Hamlet. They also portrayed how important an actor acting out his character during the performance. At one time, the actors involved the audience down stage to act out one scene of screaming on the stage. In order to build up the emotions and feelings of the character, the whole audience was asked to illustrate the commotion inside the character’s being. It was very fun and refreshing as audience also gets to involve in the success of the play!

The farce was rather unusual performance. There was a time when the actors argued among themselves about their interpretation of one of the Shakespeare’s plays. What I got from it was that how interpretation nowadays is different with that of Shakespeare’s time. When I reflect the scenario, yes, I also sometimes get confused of words and interpreted literary works, produced by much earlier writers differently from the readers of their time. I admire how these actors had successfully and brilliantly made the reduced Shakespeare’s plays a fun and fascinating play to watch. The Reduced Shakespeare, that was exactly what they were doing! Out of 5, I will give them 6 and a half for their awesome creativity and extra sense of humor!