Review: THE COMPLETE WORKS OF WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE (ABRIDGED) [REVISED] [AGAIN] At Windgate Center For The Fine And Performing Arts

For those of you who may shy away from Shakespeare, THE COMPLETE WORKS OF William Shakespeare (ABRIDGED) [REVISED] [AGAIN] by Adam Long, Daniel Singer, and Jess Winfield, and presented by the Arkansas Shakespeare Theatre Company at the new Windgate Center for the Fine and Performing Arts at the University of Central Arkansas in Conway, is, by far, the funniest production and will have everyone from seven to 107 laughing through the entire show. With just a three-person cast (Augustine Nguyen, Heather Hooten, and Quinn Gasaway) and directed by Dan Matisa, this troupe will attempt to present all 37 Shakespeare plays in 97 minutes. Did they do it? Honestly, I was too busy laughing to check my watch, and you will be too. Bring the kids. They’ll love it! 

Before the play even started, they had pre-show music. The trio sang, played instruments, and Quinn did a moving interpretation of Part of Your World, which was actually sung by Assistant Stage Manager Bri Wallace. We were laughing so hard we had tears, and that was before the show even started.  

So, how do three people cover about 50 different characters? Good question. It was fast, yet decently thorough, and super hilarious. After introducing themselves, they first work through Romeo and Juliet. They took a little time with this, so I was unsure if they were really going to make it through the rest of their projected time frame, but they went a lot quicker through the lesser-known plays. In this process, they did a bloody cooking show, joined a lot of other plays into a big conglomerate piece, because they all had similar themes, had a football game, did the death scene of Julius Caesar, and covered all but Hamlet in the first act. Quinn panics when they realize they still need to do Hamlet, runs out of the theatre with Heather chasing after him ending the first act. 

During the second act, they turn Hamlet into an audience participation play. They choose a random woman to play Ophelia, have a child run back and forth, and break up the audience to be the ego, superego, and id. Once they complete their performance of Hamlet, they notice they have a little extra time, so they do Hamlet faster, then faster again, and then backwards before they are done.  

Heather, Quinn, and Augustine were so entertaining! They all took turns taking the spotlight and looked like they were having so much fun. Heather did a lot of the actual narrating, played quite a few male parts, and handled the lecturing/teaching segment of the show. She was quite often the straight man of the trio but held her own in a lot of the silliness. Quinn had no fear of wearing the dress in the bunch. He made us all giggle at the shenanigans he pulled, including wanting to vomit a lot, playing with pool noodles, and employing physical humor into his acts. Augustine was equally amusing, and to quote my 13-year-old son “he was funny and a good singer,” which, if you understand teenagers at all, then you know that is high praise. This trio has great chemistry and perform like they have been playing together for a long time. They are definitely a fun group. 

Broadway World recognizes that it takes a small army to put together a fabulous show such as this. Creative team for COMPLETE WORKS is: Director-Dan Matisa; Scenic Design-Austin Aschbrenner; Costume Design-Keagan Styes; Sound Manager-Margo Gifford; and Assistant Stage Manager-Bri Wallace.  

This is a traveling show and has several more shows to go. For more information and tickets, visit their website at https://www.arkshakes.com. 

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