37 Shakespeare plays in 90 minutes, with fun and wit all along the way

This marks the fourth time I’ve reviewed “The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged)” at area theaters. Every time it has been uproariously funny, and every time it has been different.

The different versions come from writers Adam Long, Daniel Singer and Jess Winfield specifying in the script that theaters should feel free to add to or change the script — that they are especially encouraged to throw in local and topical references, which Centerstage does with wild abandon.

Viewers might find this show drop-dead funny, or they might find it an exercise in overwrought juvenile silliness. It’s a take on Shakespeare such as one might expect to find on “Saturday Night Live” or a Monty Python bit.

Let’s start with the set. It is a creation by Bruce Haasl, perhaps the busiest set designer in the South Sound, and it literally and metaphorically sets the stage for insane hijinks to come.

The action takes place in a parking lot on the backside of a shopping mall, complete with garbage cans, lane markings on the pavement, graffiti on the walls and a large Pop Art-style portrait of Shakespeare. It is a set that announces the players about to do all of Shakespeare’s plays in 90 minutes are rank amateurs who can’t find any place better than the backside of a rundown strip mall to perform their play.

At the start of the play, actor Laura Peake comes onstage spoofing a badly done long introduction to the show. And then Tempest Wisdom shows up as a world-renowned Shakespeare scholar lecturing the audience about Shakespeare in the manner of a know-it-all who doesn’t really know the half of it.

Three actors play more characters than can be counted. They wiz through all 37 of Shakespeare’s plays with lightning-fast costume changes and ridiculous props (including a severed human head that gets cooked). The only man in the cast, Joshua Jérard, plays most of the women’s roles wearing a wig that amazingly stayed put throughout all the physical comedy.

In “Romeo and Juliet,” Wisdom as Romeo says, “I am but love” and Jérard as Juliet interprets it as “butt love” and makes fun of it like a kid titillated by the word “butt” — complete with twerking.

“Titus Andronicus,” the bloodiest of Shakespeare’s plays, is done as a cooking show, a takeoff on Julia Childs, and “Othello” is done as a rap song. Jérard, acts insulted because the other actors assume he can rap just because he is black. And then he proves they’re right.

“Twelfth Night,” “Merry Wives of Winsor,” “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” and other comedies are lumped together as a single play and performed as a football game.

Finally, “Hamlet” takes up most of the second act and involves a lot of audience participation, some of which is drawn out too long.

The show is witty, clever and full of surprises. It is high-energy insanity, and the cast displays incredible acting skill with physical comedy and instantaneous changes in mood and character.

Your inner child should love it.

The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged)

When: 7:30 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays; 2 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays, through Oct. 21.

Where: Centerstage at Knutzen Family Theatre, 3200 SW Dash Point Road, Federal Way.

Tickets: $29 adult; $25 senior and military; $15 student; $12 under age 17.

Information: 253-565-6867, www.centerstagetheatre.com