By Racheli Jian, Senior Arts and Culture Editor and Layout Editor
Following tradition, the Yeshiva College Dramatics Society (YCDS) is putting on another comedy. The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged) [Revised] {Again}, which premiers Sunday, March 30, rivals the hilarity, creativity and fourth-wall-breaking of YCDS’s The Hound of the Baskervilles from last year. While it continues in the same fashion as the previous years show with a “play-in-a-play” structure, the tension between comedic aspects and the academia of Shakespeare’s plays leaves the audience wondering if there is more behind this typical laugh-out-loud YCDS classic.
The play begins on a beautifully crafted set reminiscent of the Shakespearean period. As Shneur Levy (YC ‘25) stands on the stage and welcomes the audience, he introduces his fellow castmates: actor and serious Shakespeare scholar Kiki Arochas (YC ‘25), who proudly holds stacks of research on the Bard’s works and Ronnie Hidary (YC ‘27), whose character is more interested in having fun than seriously committing to culture. As the two counterparts to Levy’s character enter the stage, audience members begin to uncover the central theme and tension present throughout the play.
Arochas’ and Hidary’s characters may seem like opposites in description, and they are; that is exactly what the play clinches on. One facet of the play, represented by Arochas’s character, is genuine appreciation for literature and academia. The other, represented by Hidary’s, is ironic comedy, which points out that being well-read isn’t the end-all-be-all of life.
Throughout the play, there are numerous jokes which highlight just how pretentious the world of academia can be. For example, around the top of the show, the actors ask the audience what Shakespearean plays they’ve read. After they realize the people aren’t as uneducated as they thought, the actors hilariously start to worry if their own knowledge on the content will be challenged by an audience member.
However, academics and well-read scholars aren’t the only ones the show makes fun of. As Hidary’s character outlines a quick biography of William Shakespeare from his phone, he attributes false accomplishments to the writer, such as issuing the Emancipation Proclamation and appearing in Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure. The fact that Hidary’s character and the script do not pick up on the mistakes in Shakespeare’s biography is a nod towards the lack of knowledge of our current generation. (Although Levy’s character shoves Hidary forcefully offstage after making his inaccurate speech).
After the introduction to the characters, it is revealed that these actors will perform a play that covers every work of William Shakespeare, through combining both the prestige of Shakespeare’s literature as well as the ridiculous aspects of any good comedy.
The first half features 36 out of 37 plays. This huge feat is accomplished by a variety of backstage and onstage talent. Each actor plays numerous characters, across a variety of Shakespeare’s plays. The costume changes are usually just changing or adding a wig and sporting a cape or robe. However, with the detail given to the costume changes and the talent of each actor, every character comes alive as someone different and specific to that narrative.
Another aspect of the production which allows the span of Shakespeare’s writings is the visual and auditory effects. New lights were recently installed in the Schottenstein Theatre, and YCDS really takes advantage of them. Using a spinning function with multicolored lights as an effect for a football game scene, expertly defines this part of act one, even though the set itself, one sporting an Elizabethean style nothing like a football field, hasn’t changed. Complementing the lights are the auditory effects. Spanning from a simple phone ringtone to beautiful classical music, the sound effects highlight both the comedic and serious aspects of the play, again balancing both as essential parts to the plot.
The second act covers the remaining play, Hamlet (and technically the sonnets), with the most heightened pull between humor and academia. While Arocha’s character performs a legitimate “to be or not to be” soliloquy, Hidary also plays a ghost by hilariously standing with a white sheet on top of his head.
These two aspects of the play, genuine interest in Shakespeare and the recognition that nothing is that serious, are usually at odds, but in this act, they combine. In order to further understand Ophelia, a character in Hamlet that goes through many traumas throughout the play, the three actors decide they need a full Freudian analysis. Using legitimate terms such as “ego” and “id,” the three start to dissect the character just as one would do in a high level English class. They combine seriousness with comedy by making each section of the audience represent a different part of Ophelia’s psyche. Whether it’s running around or yelling loudly, each audience member is involved in creating a comedic backdrop for the very academic analysis.
The blend between rigidity of literature and comedy of farces, such as this one, really comes out in YCDS’ The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged) [Revised] {Again}. It is not only a theme that lends itself to creating a great show, but something that the audience can take with them beyond the theater and into their own lives.
Shakespeare didn’t write plays for them to be rigidly read in a stuffy room. Rather, he created them to be acted out by people, to interpret them and play with them as they saw fit, while also sticking to the main plot. YCDS’s play reminds us that we have the ability to “perform” any intense parts of our lives with an added air of comedy too.
Photo Caption: (From left to right) Levy, Arochas and Hidary in YCDS’s ‘The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged) [Revised] {Again}’
Photo Credit: Racheli Jian / the YU Observer