The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged) (2000) (TV)

Director:

Paul Kafno

Writers:

Adam Long (writer)
Reed Martin (additional material)

Genre:

Comedy

Plot:

Three guys, one dead playwright, and 37 plays, all in under two hours. In this universally acclaimed theater experience...

Plot Keywords:

Theater | Rap | Professor | Drag Queen | William Shakespeare

Cast

Adam Long	...	Himself / others
Reed Martin	...	Himself / others
Austin Tichenor	...	Himself / others

Runtime:

88 min

Language:

English

Trivia:

The music played by 'Adam Long' as he plays the guitar during the epilogue of the Romeo and Juliet sketch is the main theme from Romeo and Juliet (1968/I), directed by Franco Zeffirelli.

Quotes:

[Adam has mistaken the definition of moor]
Reed Martin: We left Adam on his own to research this play. Apparently, he looked up "moor" in the dictionary and thought it was where you tie up boats.
Adam Long: That's what it told me it is, man!
Austin Tichenor: Which, in the course of this context is completely ridiculous, because, you see, in the 16th Century, the word moor referred to a black person.
[Adam looks at both of them]
Adam Long: I feel like such a dork.
Austin Tichenor: Yeah, well, go with the feeling.

Movie Connections:

References Hamlet (1990/I)

My back still hurts

Oh . . . my . . . god. I just saw this movie last night and it was the best and the hardest laugh I'd had in a long time. My back was killing me by the time the movie was over. The costume changes (if you could call them that by the end of the movie) are great, the vomiting is great, and the digs at academia are great. Even though it warns that this movie is not meant for English majors (I'm an English major and I can't wait to see this movie again), I think that they really mean that it's not meant for those who take Shakespeare way too seriously, who view Shakespeare as some sort of demi-god.

Only two complaints: The director cuts to the audience a little too much. You can hear that they're having fun, they're laughing, they're getting into the play, we don't need to see their reactions as well. The action goes by so quickly, I wonder if I'm missing something on stage when they cut to the audience. The other complaint: my friend sitting next to me who was viewing it for the fifth time ("Oh, this is great," "watch this," "Oh this part's funny.")

Definitely for anyone who's read Shakespeare (which would be everyone) and thought that it could never be anything but dull and boring (which in reality his plays are very rich, but then again I'm biased). :-)

10/10