Review: THE COMPLETE WORKS OF WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE (ABRIDGED) BY DAFNEY PRODUCTIONS

Director: Bernard Dafney 

Cast: Sarthak Sharma, Manik Papneja, Sahir Mehta, Rishitu Amarnani, Aman Malhotra, Sumukha Prasad

Dafney Productions presented their spin on Shakespeare at their theater studio in Mumbai, India. The play was a farcical take on the life and works of William Shakespeare, the playwright that needs no introduction. In the performance, three actors walked in and out of the many characters in Shakespeare’s plays, attempting to summarize the eventful absurdity of their stories. The production employed the rich and swift use of props and music to bring out the most mundane yet hilarious quips from Shakespeare’s plays. 

The cast comprised Sarthak Sharma, Manik Papneja, and Sahir Mehta - the three of them juggled across famous trios from Shakespeare’s plays such as the three witches from Macbeth, Romeo, and Juliet, Mercutio from Romeo and Juliet, and so on. The characters broke the fourth wall often, addressing the urban audience and titillating them with sometimes oafish humor. The staging was swift and energetic, the pace akin to a sharply edited comedy film. 

‘The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged)’ is a play by Adam Long, Daniel Singer, and Jess Winfield. The actors from Dafney Productions' take on the abridged play stayed true to the farcical and meta nature of the play - stagehands and directors popping in and out of the stage to fuel the humor. Furthermore, true to the original play, the characters improvised and played along with the urban Indian audience.  

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