On the 13th April 2019, around 30 students from S4-5 went to watch an English Theatre show called “The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged)” at the the Hong Kong Arts Centre in Wan Chai. It combined all 37 of William Shakespeare’s plays into one show, including parts from Romeo and Juliet, Julius Caesar, Macbeth, Hamlet and The Two Noble Kinsmen.
“The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged)” consisted of 3 actors. During 1600s-1700s when Shakespeare’s plays were first performed, the cast was played by men only. Nowadays, modern culture allows women to be cast in William Shakespeare’s plays too. Throughout the show, the audience were engaged with various techniques, such as having an audience member act as one of the characters or dividing up the audience into a character’s brain to show the conflicts playing out in that character’s subconscious mind. Humour plays a major part in this theatre production. Adult jokes, puns and some political references were scattered throughout the show.
At the end of the show, there was a Q&A session where audience members could ask any questions that they were curious about. Students from our school asked as many questions as they wanted and engaged with the actors. One of the actors spoke about how he struggled with understanding William Shakespeare’s work. The original works of William Shakespeare can be difficult to replicate, act and understand. Therefore, making ”The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged)” a comedy makes Shakespeare’s works a lot more accessible for those people who may have otherwise found it difficult to comprehend the texts.
Overall, the show was filled with waves of laughter and joy. For many students, this was their first taste of Shakespeare’s works and it whet their appetite to further explore these classical pieces to understand the beauty of the English language.
4M Avasti Yashvi Vijay
