LOVERS of Shakespeare will get the chance this week to see all of the Bard’s 37 plays in just 97 minutes.

How is that possible?

It’s quite simple really… it’s all down to the Reduced Shakespeare Company and their production, or should that be reduction, of The Complete Works of William Shakespeare - now abridged and revised, which means the company is recycling the same jokes but, they say, in a different order!

They’ve already had successful tours around the UK in both 2013 and 2014 and will be performing the 18th of 19 shows when they appear at Malvern’s Festival Theatre this Thursday, July 9, before completing their tour in Bath the following night.

The show is an irreverent, fast-paced romp through the Bard’s plays, The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged) was London’s longest-running comedy having clocked a very palpable nine years in London’s West End at the Criterion Theatre!

Now local fans of Shakespeare will get the chance to join these madcap men in tights as they weave their wicked way through all of Shakespeare’s comedies, histories and tragedies in one wild ride that will leave the audience breathless and helpless with laughter.

The Reduced Shakespeare Company is a three-man comedy troupe that takes long, serious subjects and reduces them to short, sharp comedies.

Since 1981, ‘The Bad Boys of Abridgement’ have created eight stage shows, two television specials, several failed TV pilots and numerous radio pieces – all of which have been performed, seen, heard and translated, so they claim, into Klingon the world over.

The company’s first three shows, The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged), The Complete History of America (abridged) and The Bible: The Complete Word of God (abridged) enjoyed a nine-year run at the Criterion Theatre in Piccadilly Circus.

Not only were they London’s longest-running comedies, but at one point the Reduced Shakespeare Company had more shows running in the West End than Andrew Lloyd Webber.

The ‘other RSC’ were last seen in the UK with their highly successful Complete World of Sports (abridged) which toured the country before completing a season in London’s West End during the 2012 Olympics.