Oil Lamp Has Great Water Under “Abridged”

By Teresa Hellmann with Wes Hessel

Oil Lamp Theater, in the charming town of Glenview, treated us to a delightful, fast-paced play, “The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged)”. Elizabeth Rentfro began the fast and furious farce with quick wit banter, preparing us for a fun show. She displayed a book – not a tablet, no off-and-off buttons or the like, but an actual book containing the infamous playwright’s words. Michael Ashford was then introduced as a supposed “Shakespeare scholar”. He began reciting, “All’s well that ends well”, only to be heckled by a “member” of the audience (who happened to be sitting near me) – she turned out to be the third cast member, Samantha Garcia. Back and forth they continued with comic precision.

As I mentioned before, this production moves very quickly. The set was simple but effective, and the energetic cast uses various lightning-fast costume changes depicting the new characters. (I can’t imagine what the props table backstage looks like by the end of the show.) Of special note was their take on Shakespeare’s comedies: so many of the themes and plots/topics overlap, and they feature the absurdity of Shakespeare’s use of twins, mistaken identities, and switched gender roles.

“Hamlet” received special treatment as their final act. They did a funny race, beginning with the Danish play condensed to 2-1/2 minutes long, then even quicker, ending in a performance of the Prince of Denmark of less than one minute. This hilarious retelling broke the play down to its most essential plot points. But it won’t end well if you miss this comic condensation of The Bard’s best when the lights go down on the show for the last time February 23rd – for tickets or more information, please go to www.oillamptheater.org.

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