Sa The Complete Works of Shakespeare (Abridged) (thanks, Chris!) It was a recording of a live production of the play by the same name, in which three dudes reenact all of Shakespeare's plays in the most frantic, high-energy manner, prefacing each one with a small discussion of the play or a bit of fire eating. It's very fast-paced and ridiculous. The jokes are not particularly witty but they are delivered at high volume, so it's jolly fun anyway. The actors look like they're having a whale of a time and the audience is all slightly nervous smiles.
The audience, by the way, is interacted with to within an inch of its life. It must be a hell of show to see live though, of course, not one you want to sit too near the front for. For the most part the audience was game, even merrily booing a lame joke near the end. It felt very high-school-y to me. The jokes are broad and topical, they acknowledge the more obscure plays but hand-wave them away as boring. But to be frank they are mostly boring, and broad and simple as the jokes in this show are, it's entertaining. Like a good loaf of bread, it's unpretentious but enjoyable. In keeping with my memories of high-school performances however, I found myself cringing through a lot of it. Every so often the audience shots show someone stonily playing along and I felt sympathy. It's mostly entertaining with a hint of direness in parts.
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