The directors note (summary of the play):

“William Shakespeare’s Long Lost First Play (Abridged) by the Reduced Theatre Company is a vaudeville-esque spoof on Shakespeare’s actual lost play, The History of Cardenio. 

In addition to Shakespeare’s thirty-nine plays that have been preserved in full, his canon contains a number of lost plays, which have no written recording. The lost play, The History of Cardenio, was performed in London in 1613 by the King’s Men.  It was most likely based on a character from Miguel de Cervantes’ Don Quixote, named, Cardenio, a young man who was driven mad and lived in Spain’s Sierra Morena.

The performers of William Shakespeare’s Long Lost First Play (Abridged), claim to have found the lost manuscript in the parking lot in Leicester after a summer tour in their van, Titus Vandronicus. The play features an ancient grudge between two fairies, Puck, (from A Midsummer Night’s Dream), and Ariel (from The Tempest) whose magic throws Shakespeare’s canon upside down. Through fairy mischief Puck and Ariel create the most unlikely of couples: the depressed Hamlet with that mean motivator, Lady Macbeth, Viola and Richard III, King Lear and the Weird Sisters and who could forget, Dromio and Juliet.

Working on this play has been an exciting and challenging journey that has required not only actors but dramaturgs who have assisted in researching all 24 Shakespearean plays that are referenced. The West Orange High School actors have been pushed to draw upon both their skills in stand up comedy as well as their delivery of Shakespeare’s rhyming couplets. Thank you actors and crew for a rewarding journey, and break a leg!”

The play will be shown on Thursday, October 31st through Saturday, November 2nd at 7:00 p.m each night. The tickets are $12 in advance and $15 at the door. Get your tickets soon and don’t miss the show!