Reduced Shakespeare Company Returns For Tour in 2026

The Theatre Chipping Norton and Selladoor Worldwide will present a new version of the West End classic, The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged) – rebooted and reimagined for 2026 – on a major UK theatre tour, opening at The Theatre Chipping Norton on 18 February.

The worldwide comic phenomenon returns with this updated and reinvented rollercoaster ride through all 37 of the Bard's plays.

After nine years in London's West End, two TV specials and performances in over 20 countries, the Reduced Shakespeare Company (RSC) now brings this classic comic masterpiece to a new generation of audiences.

Written by Adam Long (who also directs), Daniel Singer and Jess Winfield, this 2026 production has set and costume design by Liz Cooke, lighting by Alexandra Stafford and movement directed by Amy Lawrence.  The cast of three will be announced at a later date.

The Reduced Shakespeare Company began as a street theatre troupe in San Francisco Bay in the 1980s, busking 15-minute versions of Romeo and Juliet and Hamlet to earn a living. Most of the performances were at ‘Renaissance Faires' where the RSC often had to share their stage with belly dancers and sheep. The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged) was first performed at the Edinburgh Fringe in 1987, at 10am in a church basement. From there, the RSC was invited to perform in Montreal, Tokyo, New York and London. After several world tours, The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged) landed at the Criterion Theatre in Piccadilly Circus where it ran for nine years.

The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged) team hold two Guinness World Records:

• The highest altitude Shakespearean performance - on 23 April 2014 (Shakespeare's birthday) the RSC performed The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged) at 37,000 feet aboard an EasyJet flight from London Gatwick to Verona, Italy.
• The longest-running Shakespeare play (West End) – notching up 3,744 performances from its opening night on 7 March 1996 until it closed on 3 April 2005.

Adam Long said, “We've always said that The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged) is about what happens when the genius of Shakespeare collides with the mentality of the modern world. I was brought up in a world of Bugs Bunny, Marx Brothers and The B-52s. Our new young cast was brought up on TikTok, SnapChat and Labubu Dolls.

So far, in these early stages of collaboration, we've adapted Titus Andronicus as a YouTube cooking tutorial that morphs into a scene out of Stranger Things, and the entire 270 minutes of Othello has been micro-compressed into a fifteen second ukulele solo.”

The production is a new partnership between The Theatre Chipping Norton, a small but mighty rural producing theatre with a growing reputation for creating top quality work for the UK touring circuit, and Selladoor Worldwide, an established commercial producer with an excellent track record in high-end entertainment. Together, these two organisations are working closely with the founder members of the Reduced Shakespeare Company and the original writers to bring a new, refreshed version of this comedy theatre classic to contemporary audiences.

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