Port Orchard playhouse restaging popular ‘The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged).’

“Abandon seriousness all ye who enter here.” That’s the message Jan Ewen wants theater-goers to take to heart when they come to see the current Western Washington Center for the Arts play, “The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged).” Let’s just call it “Will Short.” No wait, that’s the New York Times crossword puzzle guru. How about “Bard Lite.” That works.

If the show sounds familiar, perhaps it’s because this is the second time WWCA has staged the production, with the same cast, and the other Port Orchard theater group, Performing Arts Guild of South Kitsap (PAGSK) staged it in August 2003.

If you haven’t seen it yet, get thee to a theater.

Ewen said her theater group brought it back by popular demand, as the production last winter drew full houses. The jury is still out on whether that means a lot of people love Shakespeare or can only take him in small doses.

“After the first weekend it really caught on,” she said. “By the end of the run we were turning people away. We weren’t sure how it would be received, but it went very well.”

Even though Ewen advertised the play as having a PG-13 rating for “adult humor,” she was surprised that a lot of much younger children seemed to enjoy it.

While they may not have been listening with rapt attention to the dialogue, “there’s a lot of physical comedy and slapstick,” Ewen said. Highbrow this is not.

The play by Adam Long, Daniel Singer and Jess Winfield is the longest running comedy in London, where they take the bard pretty seriously. Or they did, until this play came along eight years ago.

It’s always entertaining to let the air out of institutions that have become overblown, like the works of Shakespeare.

By condensing all of Shakespeare’s works — 37 plays and 154 sonnets — into an hour and a half with just three actors using a multitude of silly props, the playwrights remind us that in his time Shakespeare was a man of the people.

His audiences included Queen Elizabeth, but the unwashed and uneducated “groundlings” also got a big kick out of his bawdy plays. It was pretty racy stuff for its day, full of sex, blood and revenge. And, as we saw in the movie “Shakespeare in Love,” all the female parts were played by men. ‘Nuf said on that one.

If you think Shakespeare is all long-winded monologues, think again. “Bard Lite” features plenty of action, with 1,637 murders, 656 battles and 375 lewd acts. Now that’s entertainment.

The actors from last season’s performance are back for more. Performing close to 20 roles each are Dan Estes, Liam Sanchez and Peter Ewen.

Ewen, the youngest of the three, plays most of the female roles but Estes gets in a turn as Juliet’s nurse with an outrageous costume.

It should be noted that this is not just a condensed version of each play, but rather a unique take on the essence of each story. For example, the bloody “Titus Andronicus” is played as a cooking show and “Othello,” the story of “the Moor,” is done as a rap song.

Still, Ewen said people can get a feel for Shakespeare from watching this Cliff Notes version. But is Port Orchard ready for the real thing?

Ewen said she has considered staging one of Shakespeare’s plays at the WWCA and thought “Bard Lite” may be a nice, painless way to introduce neophytes to the great playwright.

“There would probably be more interest in Shakespeare after this,” she said. “I would encourage people to come, even if they don’t like Shakespeare. They will love this — it’s very entertaining.”

“The Complete Works of Shakespeare (abridged)” opened Jan. 20 and continues weekends through Feb. 19 at the WWCA theater, 521 Bay St. Port Orchard. Showtimes are 7:30 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays and 5 p.m. Sundays.

Tickets are $12 adults, $10 seniors, children and active duty military, available by phone at (360) 769-7469 or at the door. All seats reserved. wu