Cappies Review: 'Complete Works of William Shakespeare' At Meridian HS

By Mia Chetelat of West Springfield High School

If you like Shakespeare, you'll love this show. If you hate Shakespeare, you'll love this show!

Meridian High School Theater took on the 1980s play "The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged) [Revised]," written by Adam Long, Daniel Singer and Jess Winfield, which follows a merry troupe of actors hoping to speed run the entirety of the works of William Shakespeare with the help of the audience.

Meridian High School in Falls Church did a wonderful job with this satirical reimagining of the well-known works of William Shakespeare.

From rapping to interpretive dance, to puppet theater, to Star Wars references, the April 1 performance had it all — including some amazing acting! Many of the actors played multiple parts, which showed off the cast's versatility. One person who stole the show was Drew Miller, who portrayed Hamlet as well as many other well-known roles. He gripped the audience with his phenomenal charisma and physicality and nailed the slapstick comedy. Drew even went so far as to do half the show on rollerblades.

There was no denying the chemistry between Drew's Hamlet and Phi Oeschger's Ophelia. Despite the comedic retelling of this tragedy, the raw emotion shown by Phi was palpable. Phi was able to involve the audience immensely and quickly became an audience favorite by effectively using all of the space in the theater.

Phi was extremely proficient with the Shakespearean language and their transitioning between modern and Elizabethan language was by far the smoothest of the cast. The real surprise standout, however, was Matthew Bloss-Baum. Matthew was the first person on stage and set the tone for the show. His facilitation between the troupe and audience participants was very well done. He also kept his high energy throughout the entire show, and this clearly rubbed off on his fellow actors.

One thing that clearly stood out with this show was its incorporation of a number of different tech elements. Without a real physical set, the show's atmosphere was created by lighting and projections. The projections were designed and programmed by Adin Smith.

These elements captured the mood and setting perfectly with their choice of the right slides, color grading and resolution of the projections. The lack of a physical set was embraced by the cast when they chose to make a human balcony for the Romeo and Juliet Balcony scene.

The lighting designed by Drew Miller was well-balanced with the projections and helped to fill the void created by the lack of a set. There was incredible attention to detail when it came to the lighting design. For example, the lighting colors would change slowly as the scenes changed from day to night. Strobe lights and flashing colored lights were also used in the poison drinking scene in Romeo and Juliet giving it a psychedelic feel.

Finally, what really helped provide the right atmosphere and distract from the lack of set was the sound design by Wenndy Sejas. It was precise and hit all the cues seamlessly.

For example, when characters had a tennis match on stage, the sounds of a ball hitting the court was synchronized well with the actors' movements. Overall, the combination of lighting, sound, and projections helped to match the energy of the show as well as fully immerse the audience into the setting.

Overall, this show was creatively imagined and elicited many laughs from the audience members. The energy and tone were maintained throughout the whole performance and the sound design, lighting, and projections fit together harmoniously.

Meridian High School Theater did a wonderful job making us laugh while simultaneously performing 37 different comedies, tragedies, and histories by William Shakespeare.