The cast of three exuberant girls, Jess Barker-Wren , Lucy Evans and Ellie Ross, really do get through all the plays with piles of slapstick comedy, running around and many death scenes. It is a triumph for the cast and director Tom Attenborough that all the exits and entrances are achieved with precision timing.

They do use subterfuge to some extent by doing all the 17 comedies as one continuous play, justifying this with the comment that Shakespeare, having worked out a winning formula with the first one, simply wrote variations on the same basic theme. Also, all the historical plays were played out as an American football game with Henry VIII scoring the final touchdown.

Some of the tragedies do get a fuller send up almost in pantomime style. They open with Rome and Juliet - plenty of scope here for death scenes. Their closing play is Hamlet, which they round off with a 30 second version in reverse.

You know this is going to be a fast paced show with lots of action. It is great fun seeing the ingenuity of how the challenge is achieved.

****

The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged)

Company: - Black and White Rainbow

Venue: -  Just the Tonic Caves 1 V 88

Dates: - 5 to 30 August 2009 (not 18)

Times: - 14.50 to 15.50

Fringe Programme Page: - p39