The world may be a stage, but these particular players are hilarious. I must admit, I have always been a Shakespeare fan. I took theatre classes all four years of high school, took a Shakespearean literature class in high school and I even continued my studies in my freshman year at the University with Intro to Shakespeare. Shakespeare is a name that instills fear into the hearts of many students, whether at the high school or college level. Most people never get past the flowery language and strange names, but one trio of actors manages to bring the Bard’s works to the 21st Century. The group that performs Shakespeare (Abridged) has been on my radar since my senior year of high school, so I was excited to hear they were stopping by Theatre in the Park this month. The three men make use of crazy wigs and props, slapstick comedy and audience participation to bring the Bard’s works to life on a level anybody can understand. Sexual innuendos – made particularly funny by the often cross-dressing actors – ran amok, eliciting giggles and “that’s what she said” remarks. The trio performs all 37 of Shakespeare’s plays, but adds their own twist. For Othello, the group rapped the play’s synopsis as a tribute to the title character, a Moor. For the comedies, Shakespeare Abridged combined all the plots into one story told at rapid pace. The histories ceased to be boring as the group portrayed the different royals as football players vying for possession of the crown. The key to the success of the performance was the level of audience participation. Every person in the audience had a chance to show some spirit and two lucky audience members, both students, participated onstage with the actors. Katheryn Hornaday, a freshman in biology, let out a loud scream to play Ophelia in Hamlet. “It was interesting,” Hornaday said. “It was really fun and they were really nice.” Kendre McNulty, a sophomore in computer science, said her friend and roommate showed her the DVD version of the performance with the original cast. “It was so awesome and amazing that when I heard they were coming to Theatre in the Park I had to get tickets,” McNulty said. McNulty said while she enjoyed the cast of the live show, she thought original cast in the DVD version was better. “The comedies section was better on the DVD because they would cut to each actor individually,” McNulty said. “The actors on the DVD were better, but they wrote it and performed it more times than this group of actors.” Savannah Revelle, a sophomore in communication and media, said she had also seen the DVD performance and liked it so much she wanted to see it live. “My first surprise was that the performers that came to Theatre in the Park almost did a verbatim performance of the original. I could quote almost the entire show along with them and beauty of it was that it was still hilarious!” Revelle said. I was also surprised that the troupe did a nearly verbatim version of Shakespeare Abridged, but I was less happy about the lack of improvisation. According to Revelle, the group added their own twist to the show by adding some new jokes, interpreting the script in different manners and just by being themselves. “It added a whole new level,” Revelle said. “One of the main differences I can think of off of the top of my head was the ‘to be or not to be’ speech. Instead of the actor being unable to perform the speech because the audience was laughing at him, he had an emotional breakdown. I think I like their adaptation of that part better than the original.” For me, the original will always be the best, but for Revelle, the Theatre in the Park version made a big impression. “I still like the first cast better (especially Adam Long) and they will always hold a special place in my heart, but these guys were hysterical and top notch,” Revelle said. “I would definitely recommend everyone to come see this performance, Shakespeare fanatic or not.”