Metro Pulse/Backstage/Shakespeare

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What:
The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged)

When:
Thurs.-Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 2 p.m. through June 30. Bishop Center Auditorium

Where:
Webb High School

Cost:
$14/$12 Fri.-Sat., $12/$10 Thurs., Sun.

The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged) bridges a gulf to suck in audiences

by Paige M. Travis

Finding space is a serious issue within Knoxville's theater community. I don't know if you've ever tried to find a place to produce a play—a decent space that is reasonably quiet and comfortable for your audience, a place that doesn't cost a mint to rent and that offers some amenities like bathrooms and a space to hang the lights—but it's not easy in this town, maybe not in any town. For years until they moved into the Black Box in Homberg, the Actor's Co-op did plays in the empty upstairs corner of an antique store. After moving around quite a bit, Theatre Central is now in an empty storefront in Market Square. These aren't traditional auditoriums like the Bijou or the Clarence Brown Theatre, but they work better than theaters in one regard: intimacy. Audience members are so close to the actors, they can see minute facial expressions and hear every breath. I don't know if actors enjoy this level of closeness, but as a near-sighted audience member, I prefer it and am even willing to give up a comfortable seat and air conditioning to get close to the action.

There are ways theater companies address the issue of small plays getting lost on a big stage; I've seen plenty of intimate moments portrayed on the wide expanse of the Clarence Brown boards. But sometimes the space itself is a distraction. Such is the case in the very funny The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged), being produced at Webb High School by the Smoky Mountain Shakespeare Festival.

Having moved out of Pellissippi State Technical Community College due to funding issues, SMSF went looking for a new home for the summer. Pro-ducer Robert Nathan despaired of finding a place until he struck a deal with Webb to use their newly renovated auditorium. It's shiny and clean, and the seats are comfy, but it's like a warehouse with a stage and sloping seats. It's huge.

Set designer Brian Prather has done his best to fill the space: he's used huge columns and doors and arches to allude to our expectations of Shakespeare. The set also physically narrows down the stage to a few square blocks in which Brian Bonner, Donnie Cantwell III and Patrick McCray run around like madmen, portraying every one of Shakespeare's 37 plays and 154 sonnets in less than two hours. As the show progresses, from the highlights of Romeo and Juliet to the hip-hop version of Othello and beyond, it's clear these guys are wearing themselves out. It's an energetic show anyway, what with all the costume changes and slapstick physical comedy and being so darn funny. But somehow the stage itself is like a football field that the actors have to cross again and again. I've seen two other productions of Complete Works, both on the Clarence Brown Lab Theatre's tiny stage. Those actors were all over the stage and into the audience and running around the whole theater. It was a hilarious and exhilarating experience. This production shares that wackiness, but on a bigger scale.

The play, written by Adam Long, Daniel Singer and Jess Winfield, is ingenious at getting to the heart of Shakespeare's body of work and extruding every possible joke or unlikely bit of humor from the Bard's language. The seriously gory Titus Andronicus is presented as a cooking show, and the very Elizabethan and poetic "but love" becomes "butt-love." In the old-time tradition, we have one actor playing all the female roles, and Cantwell does it up right. He swings his skirt like the stereotypical flirtatious fair maiden and dons a crazy assortment of wigs, none of which really fits his head. The level of camp is through the roof, and this is Bonner and McCray's cup of tea. Both actors appeared in the Co-op's campy and absurd "Let's Get Medieval," and most recently in "The Odd Couple," also with Cantwell.

Considering the amount of action taking place on a huge stage with only three actors (and one very active dummy), director Charles R. Miller has done a great job choreographing the action to keep everything flowing. Even though they have to move great distances, the actors hit all their cues, and the timing was spot on. The props the actors threw around (like giant swords and an inflatable dinosaur) were numerous and wildly abstract, elements that were a bit distracting but also seemed necessary to fill the giant space.

Maybe it's unfair to critique the space that houses a production when I know spaces are hard to come by, and this very talented company has done well to stay afloat amidst a sea of troubles. But I can't help but wonder if they couldn't have found a smaller, maybe grungier space that would've given the actors a chance to really grab their audience instead of risking losing them in the rafters. But be not daunted, play-goers! There is a quick and easy remedy: the best way to assist the actors in their mission is to sit as close as possible. Don't be shy; they won't bite you (at least not hard). You'll experience the gags with much clarity, and they'll see and hear your laughter. It's a fair trade for a heartfelt and hilarious show.