IT will be a case of "no abridgement too far" when the Reduced Shakespeare Company encapsulate the Bard's 37 plays into 97 minutes at the Gateway in Chester next Monday.

Actors Adam Long, David Letwin and Matthew Hendrickson spare just 90 seconds on the comedies, for, they say, they aren't anywhere near as funny as the tragedies.

Purists will probably be more interested in the main attraction at the Gateway this month: Macbeth.

Having said that, director Jeremy Raison's aim has been to make the play easier to understand. Appropriately also, the whole cast is Scottish.

Richard Williams feels he's considerably improvedA Midsummer Night's Dream now being staged at the Liverpool Playhouse.

Shakey's four lovers are attired in patent leather loafers, shiny backpacks, check trousers, chiffon shirts and leather accessories and the set is an amazing black box capable of becoming a starry sky with a gleaming reflective floor beset by a forest of towing steel ladders.

Not to be outdone, the New Victoria in Hanley are currently staging Romeo and Juliet.

This particularly romantic production is set in an all too recognisable environment of modern British designer violence.

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