Reduced Shakespear Company in The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged)

Reduced Shakespeare Company in

The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged)

by Adam Long, Daniel Singer and Jess Winfield

Thursday 5 – Saturday 7 March 2026

The Haymarket, Basingstoke

 

The Reduced Shakespeare Company appear in The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged), by Adam Long, Daniel Singer and Jess Winfield, at The Haymarket from Thursday 5 to Saturday 7 March.

 

This hilarious whistle-stop tour of all 37 of the Bard’s plays is 97 minutes of action-packed fun which will leave you breathless with laughter.

 

After nine years in London’s West End, two TV specials, and performances in over 20 countries, the Reduced Shakespeare Company return with this comic masterpiece for a new generation of audiences. It is a wild and irreverent, updated and reinvented rollercoaster ride through all of the Shakespeare’s play.

 

Director and co-writer Adam Long said, “Years ago, when we first started reducing Shakespeare in San Francisco, we experimented with performing Shakespeare’s plays backwards in the hope that we might understand them better that way. In London more recently, we were lucky enough to witness an exciting work-in-progress production devised by Efe, Woogie, Tom and Kiran. It was an immersive contemporary art/dance-fusion piece based on Troilus and Cressida, climaxing with an appearance by an electronic Godzilla. We immediately knew that we’d found four kindred spirits.”

 

The Reduced Shakespeare Company began as a street theatre troupe in San Francisco Bay in the 1980s, busking 15-minute versions of Romeo and Juliet and Hamlet to earn a living. Most of the performances were at ‘Renaissance Faires’ where the RSC often had to share their stage with belly dancers and sheep. The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged) was first performed at the Edinburgh Fringe in 1987, at 10am in a church basement. From there, the RSC was invited to perform in Montreal, Tokyo, New York and London. After several world tours, the show landed at the Criterion Theatre in Piccadilly Circus where it ran for nine years.

 

Tickets to see the production at The Haymarket are priced £25 (matinees), Tue – Thu 27, Fri – Sat £29. Under 25s and f/t students £16. Friends £22.50 (includes £4 booking fee). School and group discounts available. Contact the Anvil Arts box office on 01256 844244 or visit anvilarts.org.uk.