The Los Medanos College drama department’s production of “The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged),” brought laughter to LMC’s Little Theater.

The production follows three actors (Ariel McIntyre, Konnor Heredia and Robert Dunn) who play fictionalized versions of themselves. Of the three, McIntyre is shown to be the “Preeminent Shakespeare scholar.” Together they manage to hilariously tell Shakespeare’s 37 plays in about two hours.

One of the best parts of the show was the improvisation. Each actor got the chance to shine on stage.

In one particular moment, Dunn was playing a female character and accidentally forgot his character’s wig. While this could have been awkward or embarrassing, he was able to play it off.

“Oh well, it’s still the same character if I do the voice,” he said in a high-pitched tone.

The actors’ talent comes not just from the fact that they were able to tell so many of the stories that night, but the creativity put into each telling.

For example, for the infamous story of “Romeo and Juliet,” they chose to use professional wrestlers Hulk Hogan and Macho Man Randy Savage as Sampson and Benvolio.

I admit I was a bit apprehensive about how the white trio would choose to take on “Othello,” given that other actors in the past, like Laurence Olivier and Orson Welles, chose to wear blackface for the role of the titular Moor. Luckily, they opted to perform a witty rap

Around intermission, they had a segment where Dunn and McIntyre had fled the room due to a disagreement on the play they should do. Left alone, Heredia began to talk about Shakespeare’s sonnets and passed around an index card that he described as a condensed version of all the poems, which ended up with him Rick Rolling the entire audience.

Previous plays at LMC have focused on deeper social issues through dramatic shows, such as “Radio Golf” or “Ruined,” so it was nice to see a comedic show.

Although my familiarity with Shakespeare is mostly limited to the plays I read in high school, like “Romeo and Juliet” or my many viewings of modern adaptations like “10 Things I Hate About You” (“Taming of the Shrew”) or “She’s the Man” (“Twelfth Night”), the troupe managed to tell the basic storyline of his plays in a way that made it easy for audiences to understand. Like the late ‘90s movie adaptations, they were easily able to blend things about our current society with the world of Shakespeare.

Overall, the show brought the Bard’s stories to life with clever improvisation and a modern spin.