Just as the bubonic plague was the scorn of Shakespeare’s time, epidemics have continued to wreak havoc on his legacy from beyond the grave, as Ben Elton’s “The Upstart Crow” has only just reopened for a 10 week showing at the Apollo theatre following coronavirus lockdown measures. Deeply rooted in reverence for Shakespeare, this comedy is nothing less than a gag-fest. With equal parts pride and parody it speaks to both our love of his beautiful poetry and our hatred of his apparently ludicrous language that even his contemporaries mock. 

 

David Mitchell, Gemma Whelan, and Rob Rouse all seamlessly slip back into their roles as the iconic trio of William Shakespeare, Kate, and Bottom. Whilst it is a shame that neither Harry Enfield nor Liza Tarbuck returned as William’s father and Anne Hathaway, as their presence had balanced out episodes of the show very nicely, Elton uses this to shake up the dynamics of his play and introduce new ensemble cast members, and give more time to all the rest who returned to uphold the show’s brilliance. 

 

With a more melancholy and distressed tone from the TV series, as Shakespeare grapples with the death of his son Hamnet and struggles to write a new play following a collection of whiffed comedies. Elton's comedy draws on the plots of the bard's greatest hits like King Lear and Othello, leaving the audience with a recognisable storyline that twists and turns in new and refreshing ways, taking the audience by surprise whilst also setting up predictable scenes that allow the audience to realise where the joke will inevitably head, crash, burn, and devolve into chaos before the punchline even hits.

 

Like the TV series, the theatre show relies on the humour of Shakespearean embellishment of rude words and sexual innuendos proclaimed loudly and fervently. Though it is frequently used, it is ever accompanied by visual gags and physical comedy to keep the jokes fresh and maintain the pace of this rampantly side-splitting story that constantly builds upon itself and long-running jokes more and more as it continues. 

 

Particularly brilliant was the manipulation of the medium to mock Shakespeare in a more engaging and meta way. The constant asides that were present in the TV series now feel even more comical as all action freezes and the actors invite the audience into an intimate moment with them. Of course, the play once more calls upon the classic theatre traditions of small trees and masks entirely concealing one's identity, as is a staple of the series, adding to its repertoire of theatre tools mere sheets of cloth that magically transform the entire setting of the scene. 

 

The play is enriched with long ludicrously poetic rants which both mock the overly-complex metaphors of the bard and often create heartfelt moments wrought with emotional depth. Continuing the excellent linguistics of the original series, skits that call back to the classic school experience of collapsing at the task of trying to comprehend Shakespeare are sure to be met with rampant applause. But by far the most special aspect of this play was its wonderful call-forwards to the continued modern day struggles of the audience to suggest that perhaps, behind all his fancy wordplay that has wreaked havoc on schoolchildren for centuries, Shakespeare was just as silly as we, and that we might lambast gender norms and hold them in timeless contempt, hopeful that there have always been, and will always continue to be, brave women like Kate to hold the blundering buffoons around her to account.