From the vibrant ups of A Midsummer Night’s Dream to the eerie downs of Macbeth, Shakespeare’s work is a veritable smorgasbord of emotion. And… hilarity, as Jo Caruana discovers in his Long Lost First Play.

If you like to think that all the Bard’s plays are pleasingly pompous and serious, then you may want to look away now, as Unifaun Theatre prepares to stage its latest production, William Shakespeare’s Long Lost First Play (abridged).

OK. Admittedly it isn’t really his long lost first play, but an attempt to reduce 400 hours of script and over 1,600 characters into a mere 90 minutes, with three actors all hoping against hope that no one will notice that this is a bit of a farce.

“Will they manage it? Will they get all those characters in without getting their iambic in a twist? Will they keep Shakespeare acade­mics happy? Who cares?” grins director Chris Gatt, who certainly isn’t using much of his past experience directing ‘real’ Shakespeare texts when it comes to this production.

Created by the acclaimed Reduc­ed Shakespeare Company, the story goes that the manuscript of Shakespeare’s Long Lost First Play was uncovered in a parking lot just over a year-and-a-half ago. “Strangely enough, this momentous discovery was not reported by the papers, as they seemed to care more about minor things like natural disasters, Brexit and Trump,” Gatt continues. “Which is exactly why we have brought the show to Malta!”

The play has already toured internationally to rave reviews. And it’s easy to see why it has be­come so popular, as every fa­mous character and Shakespearean plot device come together in a comically outrageous storyline that feel strangely familiar yet excitingly new.

Every famous character and Shakespearean plot device come together in a comically outrageous storyline

As for the story itself, most of it revolves around a bitter feud between The Tempest’s Ariel and a Midsummer Night’s Dream’s Puck. That said, the plot is really just a facilitator on a journey of ludicrous characters, comical acting and oodles of one-liners.

“I have a confession to make,” Gatt says. “I have always wanted to work for the RSC. So when Unifaun offered me the chance to work on an RSC production I was over the moon! I thought it was perfectly plausible – after all, if a reality TV host can be­come President of the US, then why shouldn’t a Malta-born no­body like me direct for the RSC?

“So I packed my bags, took down all my dusty copies of The Empty Space by Peter Brook, Shakespeare’s Advice to the Actors by Peter Hall, and Grotowksi’s never-published tome Stanislavski’s Other Theory and waited for my ticket to Stratford upon Avon…”

Of course, Gatt’s dream wasn’t to be – as this isn’t, in fact, the Royal Shakespeare Company, but the work of a slightly different RSC. “I soon smelt a rat… It turns out this is simply the writing of three American actors who’ve cobbled toget­her a play made up of quotes from all of Shakespeare’s plays – placed in the wrong order. It’s a fake!”

Fake as it may be, the show has proved itself and already played in London, Edinburgh and Folger Library in Washington. “Which holds the largest collection of Shakespeare stuff in the world,” the director continues. “Ultimately, I had already signed my contract with Unifaun so I couldn’t get out of this commitment (even though I would have liked to).”

So Gatt says he searched for the best Shakespeare actors in Malta. “When I couldn’t find any, I recruit­ed Nathan Brimmer, James Ryder and Joe Zammit,” he quips. “Now I just hope the audience won’t notice!”

Finally, asked about what we should expect from this light-hearted spattering of entertainment, Gatt simply suggests preparing ourselves for an evening of Shakespearean madcap mayhem. “Verse will be mashed to doggerel, immortal lines will be turned into episodes of ‘Guess that quote’, and the audience will be given a chance to water pistol the actors. It’s Shakespeare… but a little bit silly!”

William Shakespeare’s Long Lost First Play (abridged) takes place at Spazju Kreattiv from October 7 to 22. Tickets are available online.

www.kreattivita.org

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