The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged), which will be performed at Qatar’s National Theater from Feb. 28 to March 1, sounds pretty implausible. Three players – two women and one man – will conduct all of Shakespeare’s 37 plays in just under 100 minutes.

Since the concept was developed in 1987 by the Reduced Shakespeare Company, it has been performed countless times in theaters across the world. The play is supposed to be a comedy, with a lot of audience interaction and character improv.

This is the first time Qatar will see it and Farris Bukhari, the play’s co-director, told us he expects it to be well received:

Whether you love Shakespeare, hate Shakespeare, or don’t know the difference between Shakespeare and Quentin Tarantino, you will LOVE this irreverent comedy about three people and a dead Elizabethan playwright. 

But as for whether or not Qatar will “get” it, here’s what one of the organizers told Time Out Doha:

I’ve learnt to never underestimate your audience; it could be fatal.

One of the mainstays of The Complete Works is the fact that it can and should be tailored to the locale it is being performed in. That means we are going to be playing around with the script a lot; removing references that wouldn’t make sense in Qatar and replacing them with ones that are relevant to our diverse community. 

Tickets can be bought at The One stores in Landmark Mall or Villaggio Mall.   

They’ve also given us a pair of tickets to the Friday, Mar. 1 show that are up for grabs. If you’d like to win them, please leave a comment below on why you’d like to see it, and who you plan to take with you, by noon tomorrow (Sunday). We’ll announce the winners shortly thereafter!

Thoughts?

Credit: Photo courtesy of The Doha Players