JULY 22 - 27: HOLD onto your hats, the Reduced Shakespeare Company are on their way to Bath, ready to present all 37 of Shakespeare's plays in 97 minutes.

London's longest-running comedy hit, The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged) appears at the Theatre Royal from Monday to July 27.

Having shrunk Will's wit into manageable morsels of madness, the Reduced Shakespeare Company tear around the stage in tights and trainers.

Forget about sitting through four hours of Hamlet this cool bunch of guys whizz through it, backwards, in just half a minute!

The now legendary Reduced Shakespeare Company are three talented and versatile performers from the United States, whose fast-paced interpretations have taken Britain by storm.

They started life in 1981 as a pass-the-hat act performing a 20-minute version of Hamlet at Renaissance Fairs outside Los Angeles and San Francisco.

The company developed a fast, funny and physical performance style to keep their audience from walking and it worked!

In 1987, the RSC performed the first one-hour version of The Complete Works of Willliam Shakespeare (Abridged) at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, and interest in the company began to snowball.

Since then, they have toured the United States, Australia, Singapore, New Zealand and Great Britain. The Complete Works of Willliam Shakespeare (Abridged) was nominated for an Olivier Award for Best New Comedy in 1997.

Whether you are a fan of the Bard's writing or are new to his work, The Complete Works of Willliam Shakespeare (Abridged) is Shakespeare's plays as you've never imagined them before, brought lovingly and intelligently to riotous life, with dashes of the surreal thrown in for good measure.

So, dust down your doublets, sort out your singlets and join the Reduced Shakespeare Company's exhilarating and irreverent whirlwind. To book, call (01225) 448844.