Ten of the Bard’s plays are performed with each play summarized in about 10 minutes (hitting the highlights) in the wildly funny production 10 x 10: Brevity is the Soul of Wit, the latest offering by EclecticPond. By the way, the long-winded Polonius from Hamlet is the guy that utters the famous line about being short and sweet.
Adapted by Thomas Cardwell and Jeremy Grimmer, and directed by Cardwell, Shakespeare’s greatest hits are revealed. Not familiar with Will’s works (except what you were forced to read in high school)? Don’t worry — there are scant “thees” and “thous” and flights of poetry that frustrate non-English majors, and the plots are summarized pretty faithfully.
An extremely talented cast take on multiple roles — sometimes within the same play. “The Scottish Play” (Macbeth), Romeo and Juliet, Richard III, Othello, Twelfth Night, Much Ado About Nothing, Midsummer Night’s Dream, and Hamlet are presented and it is all hilarious (hard to think of Hamlet as funny, but they made it so). There’s also a preview of their upcoming production of Julius Caesar, opening on March 15 (the Ides of March, get it?).
A bit of inspired madness is a replay of a Very Famous Taunting Scene from a Very Famous British Comedy Troupe’s Very Famous King Arthur Movie, as a way of (sort of) explaining part of the plot of Henry V/Richard III. Clever.
Next performances are the 11th & 12 at 7:30 p.m. and the 13th at 5:30 p.m. Tix are $10, visit www.eclecticpond.org for info on reservations. Prithy, go see it.