THE COMPLETE WORKS OF SHAKESPEARE (ABRIDGED) | The Publick Theatre has suspended its 2009 outdoor summer season pending an inspection and likely repairs to the lighting and sound systems, but that doesn't mean the theater will be dark: Orfeo Group will be staging, before dark (so no lighting necessary), this audience favorite by Adam Long, Daniel Singer, and Jess Singer, everything you need to know about the Bard in a single evening, with all the boring parts left out, and at a "Ridiculously Reduced Price." One of the usual Publick suspects, Steve Barkhimer, directs; Daniel Berger-Jones, Gabriel Kuttner, and Risher Reddick make up the cast. Oh, and there'll be grills available in case you want to come early and barbecue. | Publick Theatre, Christian Herter Park, 1175A Soldiers Field Rd, Brighton | 617.747.4460 | Through August 9 | Curtain 6:45 pm Thurs-Sun + 2 pm Sat | $15; Thurs free to all; Fri free with student ID | Carolyn Clay's review on page 26
HAMLET | Shakespeare & Company reprises its 2006 production, a family affair, with Jason Asprey as Hamlet, S&C artistic director Tina Packer as Gertrude, her son, Jason Asprey, as Hamlet, and her husband, Dennis Krausnick, as — no, not Claudius, that would be a bit much — Polonius. Nigel Gore is back as Claudius, and Eleanor Holdridge again directs this dark, muscular production, in which the jarring metallic sounds that signify Hamlet's synaptic twitching also suggest the clanging shut of doors in the prison that is Denmark. This is a clear, compelling, if hardly transcendent reading, with a few twists that work — like Hamlet's passing out scripts of The Mousetrap to Gertrude and Claudius and having them play it like an amateur theatrical. With Elizabeth Raetz as Ophelia. | Shakespeare & Company, Founders Theatre, 70 Kemble St, Lenox | 413.637.3353 | Through August 28 | Curtain times vary | $16-$60
THE HAPPY OYSTER SPECTACULAR SHOW | Subtractive Media serves up this "live-action/video/music review with an Outer Cape bent that places contemporary culture under the microscope — one with a fractured lens. Good Morning America, Garrison Keillor, YouTube, drug commercials, and dating services are just a few of the subjects that fall prey to David Kennedy and his comedy troupe's satirical examination." | Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theater, Julie Harris Stage, 2357 Rte 6, Wellfleet | 508.349.WHAT | Through August 30 | Curtain 8 pm Sun | $25
LAUGHING WILD | Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theater's Harbor Stage season continues with Christopher Durang's crazy, poignant 1987 comedy set in the aisle of a Manhattan grocery store. In this accumulatively wacko riff on modern urban alienation, an unhinged if articulate woman has assaulted a depressed but struggling man by the tuna-fish display. Following monologues by both characters, the two find themselves wafting in and out of quirky, cartoon-violent dreams in which they clash until an embryo of empathy is formed. The play's awash in pop-cultural flotsam and jetsam of the 1980s, but it catches the pulse of unconnected, urban anxiety. And anything that introduces the Infant of Prague to Sally Jessy Raphaël (both somewhat obscure icons in these days is okay with us. Brendan Hughes directs. | Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theater, Harbor Stage, 1 Kendrick Ave [next to town pier], Wellfleet | 508.349.WHAT | Through August 16 | Curtain 7:30 pm Wed-Sun | $29; $16 student rush
