Shakespeare Complete, Albeit Briefly

[caption id="attachment_53340" align="alignnone" width="800"] The Complete Works of William Shakespeare Abridged will be at the Southampton Cultural Center in Southampton. Nathaniel Johnston, NJohnston Photography, www.njohnstonphotography.com[/caption]

By Michelle Trauring

The way English actor Ian Harkins sees it, post-Brexit Britain breaks into two camps: “those who supported to remain and the clueless.”

He found the same to be true on the East End, except on the topic of local, professional theater—and, more specifically, spearheading his own company in Southampton, where he has spent most of his summers since birth.

“The first camp is, ‘Oh my God, thank goodness you’re doing this. This is something Southampton absolutely craves,’” Mr. Harkins said during a recent telephone interview. “And the other is, ‘Why are you doing this? You’re wasting your time. Everybody just wants to drink and go to the beach.’”

The 27-year-old does not identify with either of the latter camps—“I promise I did not vote to leave and I apologize on behalf of a misinformed island country,” he said—and has forged ahead with Purpled Pheasant Productions, which will kick off its inaugural season with “The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged),” also known as “The Compleat Wrks of Wllm Shkspr (Abridged).”

Starting Thursday, three Equity actors—Shannon Harris, Rafe Terrizzi and Mr. Harkins—will take to the Southampton Cultural Center stage and attempt to perform all 37 of Shakespeare’s plays in just 90 minutes.

“Rafe plays 51 characters. That’s 28 costume changes,” Mr. Harkins said. “I don’t even know if he’s fully aware of it. I did that part before, so I counted it.”

He first saw “The Complete Works”—which is the second-longest-running play ever performed on London’s West End—in an old YouTube video before staging it in the summer of 2013. He was taken by its physical comedy, fast pace and its ability to transcend the audience’s limited or advanced knowledge of Shakespeare’s body of work.

“It will make a lot of sense to people who know Shakespeare well and it will still be a lot of fun for people who know nothing about Shakespeare,” he said. “It’s just a good, slapstick romp. It’s one of the funniest shows I’ve ever seen. It’s highbrow and lowbrow at once, and it’s timely. It’s the 400^th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death this year—for those of us who are counting—and it just made a lot of sense.”

While this will be his fourth effort, it is Mr. Harkins’s first time on the “professor track,” as he calls it, or embodying one of the world’s foremost Shakespearean experts after taking an online course on The Bard.

“One of the things we’re doing is we’re changing all the names to our own names, so it’s the role of Ian now,” he said. “But it’s very, very much a character. Ian, bless him, likes to think of himself as, uh, a classy professional. He has written extensively, of course, on Shakespeare, albeit misinformed. It’s not clear he’s gotten to the end of any of the plays.

“But whatever you may think of their misinformation, or any of their bungling, don’t let it get lost on you. They really do appreciate Shakespeare. Though they may be incompetent, they love it. Loveable idiots is how I’d describe them all.”

As the public domain production allows, the cast and crew have written in a number of current events into this rendition of the play, as well as local references. After all, Mr. Harkins said most of his early childhood memories are rooted in Southampton—despite his English accent.

“My grandparents initially lived out on the South Fork, so there are photos of me out there, toddling around, baby pictures of me by the pools in Southampton,” he said. “My mother tells a story about how one of the first homes we rented was near Water Mill. She warmed up my milk bottle in the microwave, which caught fire and spread throughout the whole kitchen and burned the house down.”

He laughed and continued, “That gives you an idea of, even as a toddler, I already I had an influence on the community. I’d love to, after the summer is done, get an idea from the community about the sorts of things they’d like to see from us. I’d love to have that conversation, if this is something that people want to try on in the community. So please come tell us what you think.”

Purpled Pheasant Productions will premiere “The Complete Works of Shakespeare: Abridged” on Thursday, July 14, at 7:30 p.m. at the Southampton Cultural Center. Additional performances will stage on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30 p.m. and Sundays at 5 p.m., through July 31. Tickets are $30, $22 for students and $10 for large parties. Tickets for the Saturday, July 16, performance are $50, or are included as part of a fundraiser dinner later that night at the Southampton Inn. Tickets are $250. For more information, visit purpledpheasant.org.