Let's get right to the point: If you're a local-theater fan who's got a friend who loves every type of live performance experience except local theater, saying it's just not their thing, this is probably the first show you need to drag them to.
For the uninitiated, the idea of seeing a play that didn't run for six years on Broadway may inspire some unfortunate cliches. Turgidity. Amateurishness. Low-budget realizations of indecipherable scripts written by depressed, unemployed grad students who take up too much time in booths at Panera. Such assumptions are almost always untrue, and fortunately, we've got Tampa's Jobsite Theater, which for a couple of decades has been obliterating those preconceptions with interesting and, equally importantly, entertaining work. And Jobsite's 20th anniversary '18-'19 season has, so far, consistently upped that ante (season-opening redux of Hedwig, anyone?).
From the first minutes of the fourth-wall-breaking intro to The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged) — brought back by Jobsite for the first time in 17 years, with a revised book — it was evident that the three guys onstage were determined above all to entertain the shit out of the audience. Actors Shawn Paonessa, David Jenkins and Spencer Meyers did just that over the course of an awe- and guffaw-inspiring 90-minute sprint through all 37 of the Bard's plays (plus sonnets!), mugging, winking, forsooth-ing and iambic pentameter-ing in a perfectly timed balance of self-awareness, snark and smarts.
The set was practically nonexistent; it didn't matter at all. The performances were the attraction here, and the palpable sense that the actors were having a great time playing off one another while also trying to one up each other a bit kept the audience focused on them, wondering what quip, quote or bit of physical spectacle was coming next. Katrina Stevenson's direction was tight and snappy — a prerequisite for the play, and flawlessly executed. The show flew by, making this viewer wonder if the brief intermission was even necessary.
It's been said that the essence of theater is commitment. It's been said that the essence of comedy is timing. Jobsite's latest production of Shakespeare (Abridged) has both in abundance — more than enough to convince your skeptical friend that local theater isn't just artsy, it can be damned fun.
This article appears in Mar 28 – Apr 4, 2019.