Review of The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged) (2000) by Jonathan R — 12 Mar 2008
As anyone who knows me, or was with me in honors at Curry, knows I hate Shakespeare. I think he is overrated and over appreciated. I enjoy very few, if any, of his works. No matter how you wrap up his words and no matter what costume they wear I cannot stand reading or watching anything he wrote.
That changes with this DVD. Many people I've worked with in the library field have strongly recommended this to me. They, like you if you know me at all, know I hate Shakespeare. I gave in and watched this. This is one of the funniest adaptations of Shakespeare I've seen. It is accessible and enjoyable. It pays homage to Shakespeare, where appropriate, and pokes fun at his inadequacies now and again.
The level of skill to reduce Shakespeare, all of Shakespeare, to under 90 minutes while staying true to his message is incredible. Clearly, these actors are quite talented.
The low point, for me, was the audience participation near the end. That rests more with my disgust of audience participation than with anything else. Despite that the participation was a great visual representation of the suicidal female from Hamlet.
This review of The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged) (2000) was written by Jonathan R on 12 Mar 2008.
The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged) has generally received very positive reviews.
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