Discovered in a treasure-filled parking lot in Leicester, England (next to a pile of bones that didn't look that important), an ancient manuscript proves to be the long-lost first play written by none other than 17-year-old William Shakespeare from Stratford.
In this strange-yet-familiar narrative, an ancient grudge pits Puck (from A Midsummer Night's Dream) against Ariel (from The Tempest) and turns Shakespeare's canon upside-down, creating such strange bedfellows as Hamlet and that master motivator Lady Macbeth, Viola and Richard III, King Lear and the Weird Sisters and, of course, Dromio and Juliet.
Using questionable scholarship and street-performer smarts, playwrights Reed Martin and Austin Tichenor weave together most of the famous speeches and plot devices of Shakespeare's 39 plays to create a fast, funny, and fictional fortieth play, filled with witty wordplay and vaudevillian variety.
This, in a nutshell, is the plot of 'William Shakespeare's Long Lost First Play (abridged)' which is being produced in Malta this month by Unifaun Theatre Company.
"It is 200% fun... a lovely comedy, full of tongue-in-cheek humour," Mr Buckle smiles, "I like doing comedies, as I am growing addicted to the sound of people laughing, but I want to do comedies with wit. This play is more of a stand-up comedy, in line with Michael McIntyre repertoire. It is based on Shakespeare's plays but one does not have to be a Shakespeare expert to appreciate it, although it helps."
Buckle says that with Chris Gatt directing and three very funny comedians - James Ryder, Nathan Brimmer and Joseph Zammit - in the cast, there is a great sense of ownership of the script and they are all delighted to be part of it.
According to Ryder, rehearsals have been tiring but great (they all get to play a multitude of characters each - male and female - amidst a flurry of wigs, masks, and skirts) and that the chemistry and camaraderie between them is a big plus, since the three of them have been friends for many years.
The main challenge of this production is learning to switch effortlessly between every character we play," Brimmer said, "Some of our costume and character changes are literally five seconds apart and although it's a very silly and fun comedy, we still do a lot of character and script work to bring Shakespeare's actual lines to life."
The company intends to tour secondary schools with the play later in the scholastic year and do some workshops on Shakespeare with pupils as Mr Buckle thinks that this is a great way to involve young people with Shakespearean scripts and to allow them realise how much fun they actually are.
"It's a ridiculously silly, fast-paced comedy to an intense degree," Zammit says, "For the hard-core Shakespeare fans there are a lot of hidden gems in the script as it changes and adapts famous lines from all of his plays. And you get to see three guys sweating buckets while reciting crazy Shakespeare for an hour-and-a-half. Enticing isn't it?"
'William Shakespeare's Long Lost First Play (abridged)' is being held on the 7, 8, 12, 13, 14, 15, 19, 20, 21 and 22 October. Tickets can be purchased from: www.kreattivita.org.