About the show:

Every year, The Company brings back this audience favorite!   An irreverent, 90-minute fast-paced romp through the Bard's 37 plays by only THREE actors! The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged) was London's longest-running comedy...10 years at the Criterion Theatre! This show is a high-speed roller-coaster type condensation of all of Shakespeare's plays and is not recommended for people with heart ailments, bladder problems, inner-ear disorders and/or people inclined to motion sickness.  

Deborah Martin from the San Antonio Express News says: Their performances are laugh-out-loud funny all the way through. (Full review below.)

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READ THE FULL REVIEW FROM THE SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS NEWS:

Review: Bard boiled down in 'Complete Works'

By Deborah Martin - Express-News Staff Writer

How, exactly, do three guys manage to tackle every single one of Shakespeare's plays in just under two hours?

The answer can be found in “The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged),” currently getting an appropriately daffy staging courtesy of The Company.

The breakneck comedy, which was cooked up about 20 years ago by the California-based Reduced Shakespeare Company, does at least reference all of Shakespeare's plays and even has some fun with the sonnets.Naturally, some liberties are taken: “Titus Andronicus” is boiled down to a very  bloody cooking show, complete with references to Food Network star Emeril Lagasse; the histories become a football game in which apenalty is called for a fictional character (King Lear) on the field;and all of the comedies are pared down to a single piece subtitled “The Desperate Housewives of Windsor.”

It all builds to a 30-minute “Hamlet” that manages to hit all the big stuff — the visitation of the ghost, the accusatory play-within-a-play, Ophelia's madness and the bloodbath at the end —while adding in some goofier elements, as well.

There is a single serious moment, when director Damian Gillen (one-third of a cast that also includes Benji Regan and Jared Stephens)delivers a few moments of the “what a piece of work is man” monologue from “Hamlet.” His delivery, spare and elegant, is striking, making it an excellent (if fleeting) reminder of why the Bard's work is still performed.

Gillen, Regan and Stephens are a good team, demonstrating deft comictiming as they zip through the show. Their performances are laugh-out-loud funny all the way through.

They're performing Sunday afternoons at an Orderup restaurant as part of The Company's Dinnerbox series, in which lunch can be ordered off the menu before the show. The venue lends itself fairly well to the audience participation moments, though some of the show's blocking needs to be polished to make sure that the audience doesn't miss key moments. The scuffle between Stephens and Gillen — playing the be-wigged “Romeo and Juliet” — over the kissing scene was played on Sunday so far to one side of the playing space that it was difficult for some audience members to see what was going on.

They'll venture outside Orderup for a single performance at Arneson River Theatre.  That should give them some room to spread out, something that looks like it'll be worth catching.

WHEN: Summer 2010

WHERE: Fridays & Saturdays in The Big Apple Room, inside Little Italy (Located at 824 Afterglow @ West Ave, near Blanco)

PRICE: Only $30 for Dinner & Show combo (When purchased in advance, Tickets are $40 at the door. Seating is limited, reservations are strongly suggested!)

The Dinnerbox menu:

• Baked Lasagna w/ Meat - Pasta Sheets layered with Italian seasoned ground beef, cheese & marinara sauce.
  
• Baked Lasagna w/ Spinach - Fresh spinach sautee layered with pasta sheets, cheeses & marinara sauce.
  
• Chicken Parmigiana – Hand breaded chicken breast fried then baked and topped with marinara sauce and mozzarella cheese.
  
• Spaghetti with Meatballs – Homemade Italian seasoned ground beef Meatballs in tomato sauce over a bed of spaghetti.

Beer & wine available for purchase.

Please tip your waitstaff.

Don't feed the actors...they might bite.

Please email your Dinnerbox menu selection immediately upon ordering your tickets: info@thecompanytheatre.org