The Masque proves Shakespeare is anything but boring through its rendition of his works

By Courtney Bowers
Collegian Staff
April 12, 2006


Shakespeare—the boring guy from 400 years ago, whose plays you read in Lit class. The guy whose English barely seems like English, but rather some random conglomeration of words spoken by people in tights. Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet and Ophelia, Othello and Desdemona—Shakespeare’s characters are a bunch of overdramatic people who are prone to soliloquies and speaking in iambic pentameter, whatever that is. Shakespeare is not fun or funny, right? Wrong.

For its final show this year, the Masque is putting on The Complete Works of Shakespeare (Abridged), a hysterical spoof of the Bard’s writings. A cast of five main actors and four supporting actors (the “Hamlettes”) makes a comedy of all of Shakespeare’s plays, even the tragedies.

“Comedy as a vehicle is very useful in breaking down intellectual barriers,” said junior cast member Amy Nickerson, who is also the incoming President and Producer of the Masque.

“This is an interesting way to put all of Shakespeare together and not only make it fun, but also make it understandable and clear,” said Celeste Walker, Director and adjunct Communication professor. Through this comedy, people not only enjoy Shakespeare, but they will realize that they will get it too.

“I hope that the audience gets more than just entertainment out of this play. I hope they get turned onto Shakespeare, even a little bit.”

“The cast is phenomenal. This play is all about very fast work and intelligence—the actors have to grasp Shakespeare, parody him and also be able to be characters while being themselves and often speak in accents as well,”

“This is a unique group of people who get along so well—without one of them, is just wouldn’t work,” said sophomore Assistant Director Sara Allen.
“They are really comfortable together and work well off of each other, and that makes the play.”

“Even if you don’t know anything about Shakespeare, you can still get a lot of the jokes and have a lot of fun. I happened to be a big Shakespeare fan going in, and I’m in a Shakespeare class concurrently, so I’ve gotten a lot out of this show and seen a lot of parallels,” senior cast member Dino Dedic said. “It’s a neat idea to take lines from the actual text of the plays and integrate them all into this abridged version.”

He also expressed that he enjoyed doing the more dramatic roles that were assigned to him, and said that even being foreign (he is a native of Bosnia) has not been a hindrance in working through this show.

Audience participation is key to this play. Even this Collegian writer got pulled into the mayhem during a practice, and was forced to run back and forth as the representation of Ophelia’s Superego. It just makes more sense to see the play than to try to explain it.

Shakespeare Abridged has something for everyone—speed, accents, death scenes, slapstick, people in drag, sock puppets, rap, energy and a cast to make it all work.

The Complete Works of Shakespeare Abridged will show in the Dan Rodden Theatre Thursday to Saturday, April 20 to 22 at 8 p.m. and at 2 p.m. on Sunday, April 23.

All La Salle students receive one free ticket with their IDs: otherwise prices are $9 general admission, $7 students, faculty and senior citizens.

bowersc1@lasalle.edu