The Reduced Shakespeare Company has been hilariously abridging the Bard for 36 years.

Award-laden, acclaimed and having a pedigree without question, the American troupe constantly entertains audiences with a complete mishmash of bawdy Bard tales.

Here the RSC tackles its most ambitious project yet – Shakespeare’s first play which ‘was discovered under a Leicester car park’.

Running to thousands of pages, 100 hours long and with a cast of more than 1,600 characters, it is surely too much to attempt.

However, that doesn’t deter the energetic current cast of James Percy, Matthew Pearson and Joseph Maudsley from presenting this first faux-lio.

Famous characters overlap from various plays (Lady Macbeth out-eviling Hamlet, Puck battling with Aerial, Richard III courting Viola etc) in a non-stop and supremely funny romp through this lesser-known work of our greatest dramatist.

There are puns galore, innumerable costume changes, a host of contemporary references and a central theme of an homage to Walt Disney films running throughout the 90 minutes of side-splitting, hilarity.

For an intelligent, supremely chucklesome and gloriously irreverent evening’s entertainment with a decent splash of actual literature, this can barely be beaten.

  • The show runs at the Lighthouse until tonight.