By Julianne Mosher 

It’s time to shake up Shakespeare.

Suffolk County Community College’s latest production of Shakespeare’s Lovers & Fighters is a great approach to the famous playwright and his stories since it’s a compilation of some of his most famous scenes from several different plays. 

Serving as an anthology of Shakespeare’s As You Like It, The Taming of the Shrew, Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth, Henry V, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Twelfth Night and Hamlet director Steven Lantz-Gefroh said this was a way to bring a little bit of Shakespeare and highlight both the lovers and the fighters.

What’s great for this hour-and-a-half long show, with a 10-minute intermission, is that the audience gets snippets of some of Shakespeare’s most beloved plays without having to sit through them in their entirety. Narrated by William, himself, in between the different scenes, the show is a way to either adore some of your favorite Shakespearean tragedies, comedies and histories or immerse yourself into a piece of his work that you might not know of already.

Set on a brilliantly crafted stage that hosts a balcony, stairs and minimal props, the actors are able to adapt quickly and efficiently in between the different stories; some that take place in France (As You Like It), Scotland (Macbeth), Athens (A Midsummer Night’s Dream), Denmark (Hamlet), and Italy (The Taming of the Shrew and Romeo and Juliet).

We start off with scene 3.2 from As You Like It where Rosalind and her cousin, Celia, are met with Rosalind’s love interest, Orlando. Dressed in drag, Rosalind fools Orlando into believing she is a love expert. 

We head south to Italy for scene 2.1 of The Taming of the Shrew where we meet Katherine, an angsty, angry shrew of a woman who is being courted by Petruchio after he makes a deal with her father, Baptista. Katherine wants none of this, but could there be chemistry between the two if she tried?

While in Italy, we’re outside Juliet Capulet’s balcony for that famous scene. Enough said.

Up in Scotland, we meet Macbeth who fights Macduff in an intense scene of combat. The artistry behind the fight is stunning and impressive to the audience sitting at the edges of their seats.

Thereafter we’re back in France at Henry V’s court where we see him seduce Catherine of France as part of a plan to end the Hundred Years’ War and place King Henry on the French throne.

Back in Verona, we are in the public square where the Capulets and Montagues fight it out after the two groups have words — which stems from generations of feuding between the two families. As before, the swordsmanship is a dance on the stage that is carefully crafted with every move. Impressive, again, to say the least.

We also are privileged to see scene 4.1 from As You Like It, 3.4 from Twelfth Night, 5.1 from A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and 3.1 from Hamlet during act two. 

The show concludes with the entire cast on stage separated into the English and French for an epic battle scene between the two groups from scenes 4.3-7 from Henry V at the Battle of Agincourt. All in all, the show has something for everyone — whether you liked reading Shakespeare in high school or not. 

The talent of these actors — which include Gabriel Patrascu, Scott Dowd, Ryan Shaw, Jeremy Bazata, Alani Etheridge, Angie Barrientos, Alani Etheridge, Michaela Fitzsimmons, Haylee Giglio, Talia Mazza and Thomas McGuire — is beyond exceptional. Their ability to become the characters Shakespeare created nearly 500 years ago (and speak-eth in thy tongue) is incredibly difficult but they do it with such ease that it is especially impressive. Each actor shines on stage in their Shakespearean costume, you’ll think that you’re watching New York City’s “Shakespeare in the Park,” — only this is much closer. 

The Theatres at Suffolk County Community College present Shakespeare’s Lovers & Fighters in the Shea Theatre, Islip Arts Building, SCCC Ammerman campus, 533 College Road, Selden on Nov. 14, 15 and 16 at 7:30 p.m. and Nov. 17 at 2 p.m. General admission is $15, veterans and students 16 years of age or younger $10. SCCC students with current ID are offered one free ticket. To order, please call the box office at 631-451-4163.