The Stirling Players Presents The Complete Works of Shakespeare Abridged This Fall

For their final production in their 50th-anniversary year, The Stirling Players will present something completely different - The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged), by Adam Long, Daniel Singer and Jess Winfield, presenting all of Shakespeare's plays and some sonnets in less than two hours.

Part bawdy comedy, part melodrama, part parody, this is a highly energetic, irreverent and yet affectionate tribute to the one playwright whom absolutely everyone has heard of, and many may even have read.

Jethro Pidd, who directs the show, says it is one of those plays he has always wanted to perform in.

A drama teacher by profession, Pidd produced it with a group of students about five years ago, "and I just fell in love with the play".

When The Players were seeking submissions from directors last year, they said they were looking for world theatre for the anniversary year.

"I thought 'you can't get more worldly than the Complete Works'," Pidd says.
Although the play was originally scripted for three male actors, Pidd's unusual audition call was for three to six actors. "I wanted a more diverse cast, and I really wanted mixed genders and in the end, I have six fantastic people. I am trying to take a collaborative approach. Everyone who is in the show brings something different to the party. My goal is that this has to be a group of people putting the production on, not me as director producing the show."

Pidd is the movement coach for Dogfight, a musical set in the time of the Vietnam war, for St Jude's Players, but is no stranger to Stirling. Last year he starred as Doug, in the Stirling Players' production of Cosi.

The Complete Works reflects a shift by The Stirling Players towards encouraging younger directors and seeking a greater contrast between the two shows that it produces each year. The aim is to have at least one which is more "serious" in the sense that the audience can identify with the emotions and dilemmas portrayed. The other can be more of a chance to lighten up and have a bit of fun.

Even if it means that if some over-acting tragedian has to be stabbed with a retractable plastic sword and die on stage from a surfeit of Shakespearian quotations - Then, forsooth, so be it!

The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged) opens at the Stirling Community Theatre on September 9. Performances are Fridays, 9, 16 and 23 and Saturdays 10, 17 and 24 at 8pm. Sunday matinees are on September 11 and 18 at 3pm.

Bookings will open this month.

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