At one point during The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged) [revised] -- right after a hip-hop Othello and before a Cuisinart-style version of 16 comedies -- three of the hardest-working men in Shakespearean showbiz acknowledge that the Bard of Avon wasn't exactly, um, original.

Reed Martin, Austin Tichenor and Matt Rippy, aka the ''bad boys of abridgement,'' point out that the English-speaking world's greatest playwright ''borrowed'' from the best, reworking plots to make them his own. And in 97 frenetic and hilarious minutes, true to the spirit of the master, the three do exactly the same thing.

Through mid-January, the Reduced Shakespeare Company (call it the non-royal RSC) is holding forth in the Carnival Studio Theater at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts. During the long run, Rippy will be the constant; Martin and Tichenor, who are also the directors-writers-managing partners of the RSC, will rotate into and out of the show (you'll see company members Michael Faulkner and Mick Orfe when Martin and Tichenor are otherwise engaged).

The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged) [revised] is the antithesis of a linguistically impenetrable, mind-numbingly lengthy, deadly serious Shakespearean production. This is Shakespeare as it was back in the Bard's day: bawdy, irreverent, sublimely entertaining.

Those who know and relish Shakespeare's plays will appreciate the myriad fleeting references to the tragedies, the comedies, the history plays. The compact, nutty versions of Romeo and Juliet and Hamlet (the latter done fast, faster, fastest, then backwards) are clever distillations of the originals. The more you know about Shakespeare's work, the more you'll get from the RSC's labors.

But even if you're a relative Shakespeare innocent (or worse, a Bard hater), the way The Complete Works works will probably crack you up.

The show's carefully honed material blends classic plays and characters with gleefully anachronistic contemporary references. Rippy, for example, delivers an interesting biographical summation of Shakespeare's life, beginning with his birth in 1564 and ending with his death during World War II alongside his mistress, Eva Peron. For this he credits (or blames) Google.

Titus Andronicus is performed in the style of a particularly bloody TV cooking show. Performance art gets skewered. We hear the phrase ''yes we can,'' and later a reference to Alaska's hottie governor. Hamlet becomes, in part, an exercise in audience participation -- but, for once, getting in on the act is actually fun.

Martin, Tichenor and Rippy each bring a distinctive stage persona to The Complete Works.

Martin, the bald guy, is the unflappable one. When the other two abandon him for a time, he gamely entertains the audience by gulping down fire (he used to be a circus clown) and, later, playing the accordion. Tichenor is a pseudo-Shakespearean scholar (his vast ''education'' having come from the Internet), but he pontificates as though he were Harold Bloom. Rippy combines a stoner-surfer vibe with a frenetic physical energy, repeatedly ''hurling'' on the Carnival's version of the groundlings.

Some of the RSC's humor is sophomoric, some almost blue enough that Rippy calling the Bard a ''perve'' seems observant rather than offensive. Yet from its comic swordplay to its clever wordplay, The Complete Works weds rapid-fire literary insight to saucy sketch comedy.

Join the discussion

Note: If this is your first time using our NEW commenting system, you will have to LOG OUT and then LOG BACK IN.

The Miami Herald is pleased to provide this opportunity to share information, experiences and observations about what's in the news. Some of the comments may be reprinted elsewhere in the site or in the newspaper. We encourage lively, open debate on the issues of the day, and ask that you refrain from profanity, hate speech, personal comments and remarks that are off point. In order to post comments, you must be a registered user of MiamiHerald.com. Your username will show along with the comments you post. Thank you for taking the time to offer your thoughts.

     Showing: Oldest first Newest first Most-recommended first Least-recommended first

@Nyx.AuthorDisplayName@ wrote on @Nyx.PostedAtTime@:

@Nyx.CommentBody@

@Nyx.Recommender@ @Nyx.AbuseReporter@