Complete Works of Shakespeare (abridged)

You can't go round barfing on people, man! - Advantages: You'll laugh so hard you'll cry., You'll fall in love with the actors., You'll be smiling to yourself for the next year! - Disadvantages: You'll come back so often you'll need another source of income.

The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged) is a scam! They missed out a play - Coriolanus. Albeit for a very good reason. Who, after all, would want to perform the anus play..!? I saw this production in Sheffield at the Lycem Theatre. I had always been interested by the premise offered by this play and had waited for the chance to go and see it. It has played the Edinburgh Fringe to rave reviews and it is a very good and entertaining piece of comedy theatre. The set-up begins with the actors inroducing themselves and their love of theatre and Shakespeare himself before they launch into the routine. Believe me. Abridged is hardly the word ...

Laughed? I almost wet myself - as my usually straight-laced boss described the performance he was taking us to see on a company outing. Instantly I translated this as 'actually funny, not bad considering it's at the theatre' - it has long been my opinion that the theatre has none of the magic of film or television and uncomfortable seats to boot. I was wrong. It was pant-wettingly funny and beat the other media hands down in a fair fight (and the seats had enough legroom for my 5'10" stature). My first reaction (after 'hey, I can sit down here without losing circulation' - although maybe this was just because we were in the stalls) ...