THE COMPLETE WORKS OF WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE (ABRIDGED) [REVISED] [AGAIN]: TO ITS OWN SELF IT’S TRUE

The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged) [Revised] [Again] is kind of like a trampoline park for actors: it gives them a great workout and a chance to show off their skills as they bounce from one Shakespearean play to the next, trying to get them all done in 90 minutes.

To make things even trickier, in this Bard on the Beach production, which was directed by Mark Chavez, an ensemble of four players rotates through three tracks — so three of the four perform in each show, playing different sets of characters.

The combo I saw — Tess Degenstein, Craig Erickson, and Nathan Kay — are impressively skilled bouncers.

And the stylistic task of Complete Works is both clearer — and more fully realized — than that of the other productions at Bard on the Beach this summer. Members of the artistic team know their assignment is slapstick and they take big, greedy mouthfuls of that approach — as they should.

That isn’t to say Complete Works is completely satisfying.

Act 1 contains highlights that are so goofily unexpected they more or less force you to laugh. Sometimes, it’s delivery that makes a moment work: when Erickson’s newly-stabbed Julius Caesar delivers his famous line “Et tu, Brute?”, and Kay’s Brutus replies, “I don’t. Speak. French,” for instance. And sometimes it’s the genius of an actor making something out of nothing: when a kilted and deadly serious Degenstein introduces Macbeth by imitating a squawking bagpipe. And there are playful in-jokes: “If Dionysus and iambic pentameter had a baby, it would be Christopher Gaze.”

But there are also times when it feels like you’re walking across a vacant lot: a sequence that attempts to send up the recycled conventions of the comedies, for instance, and a long, dull bit in which the history plays are presented as a convoluted board game. None of this material feels particularly knowledgeable or well-observed.

Fortunately, Act 2, which focuses on Hamlet, is more consistently successful. Because of the greater time allotted to Hamlet, Act 2 digs deeper into the story and its characters, and this flow seems to allow the laughs to accumulate more easily. There’s a sequence off the top of the act that throws together malapropisms, physical comedy, and commentary — “That’s a Shakespearean technique. It’s called yelling” — that’s particularly satisfying. And, the night I was there, Kay offered both a Trumpian Claudio and an affecting Ophelia.

The performers I saw are all energetically committed, which keeps things afloat, although Erickson tends towards strangled delivery when his characters get excited, which limits vocal variety.

Costumer Alaia Hamer has provided handsome suits and dapper shoes as baseline costumes, then she layers on pieces from Bard’s previous productions, which is fun.

The Complete Works gives you sweet, sweet nothing to think about, but that’s not its aim. It’s here to entertain — and it does so with reasonable regularity.

THE COMPLETE WORKS OF WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE (ABRIDGED) [REVISED] [AGAIN] by Adam Long, Daniel Singer, and Jess Winfield; new revisions by Daniel Singer and Jess Winfield. Directed by Mark Chavez. A Bard on the Beach production in rep in the Douglas Campbell tent in Vanier Park until September 20. Tickets and information

PHOTO CREDIT: Nathan Kay and Craig Erickson on the ramparts in Hamlet (Photo by Tim Matheson)

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