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Jumping for joy: Sprint Shakespeare at Epsom Playhouse

About three years ago, me and the old man went to the Criterion Theatre on Piccadilly Circus to see the Complete History of America.

We had a choice of that or the rather brilliant Complete Works of Shakespeare (Abridged), but we had already seen that.

We collected our tickets, re-mortgaged the house for a thimble of ice cream, muscled our way past the Americans in caps and settled down to watch... the Complete Works of Shakespeare (Abridged). (Again). Wrong tickets.

But we were delighted to watch it again; firstly we already knew it was brilliant fun, and secondly our common, capricious Alzheimer's gene meant neither of us could remember the gags anyway.

The award-winning show is now touring and comes to Epsom Playhouse next week. And this is the gist: three men sprint through all 37 of Shakespeare's plays in 87 minutes. Thirty six in the first half, Hamlet in the second. Each one (except Hamlet) having been stripped and peeled and reduced until you have a miniature Russian doll of the original.

Then come the tweaks - Othellos is performed a as a rap, Titus Andronicus as a cookery show.

Ryan Ellsworth, 32, from Vancouver, is one of the performers (Declan Mills, Simon Cole and Glen Conroy make up the rotating cast of four): "It started with three young hippie-type guys in south California, they did Romeo and Juliet in 20 minutes and they took it to medieval fairs where new age travellers would hang out.

"Then they tried Hamlet and then the compete works and took it to Edinburgh in the 80s.

"The main guy - Adam Long - was a big fan of the Marx Brothers, which is an interseting starting point for three guys riffing on stage, sparring and doing bits of Bard that people are familiar with. I think he wanted to tap into something vaudeville and music hall."

And is this a blagger I see before me? Edinburgh is awash with conceptually similar shows - reduced this, one-man that. Many inferior, I hasten to add.

"Hamlet we spend the most time on," Ryan continues, "it is his best known play and we do it in about 30 seconds, then we repeat it, getting faster and faster and then we do it backwards, which is great fun.

"We do all the histories - we do the war of the roses as an American football game, Titus Andronicus we have turned into a food programme that is kind of Delia Smith versus Quentin Tarantino.

"It has stood the test of time amazingly. Part of the appeal is that you learn a hell of a lot from it. We did it in Stratford as a guest of the Royal Shakespeare Company, so everybody there had seen the entire Shakespeare canon but they still loved it.

"There is an unknown quanitity as well because there is some audience participation and people will do strange things. We have had people disappear backstage and run into the wings, so out of complete terror we've had to go and find them.

"You can get a local amdram society up who completely outshine you. Every night's different, which means a lot of fun for us."

Reduced Shakespeare Company; Epsom Playhouse, Ashley Avenue, Epsom, KT18 5AL; Monday, February 11, 8pm, £18.50/£14.80, call 01372 742555 / 742227, visit epsomplayhouse.co.uk for booking.

5:07pm Wednesday 6th February 2008

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