ALLEN PARK, Mich.–Summer is the season for Shakespeare in Michigan. There are tragedies, comedies, some in between (known as the lost plays), and then there is The Complete Works of Shakespeare: Abridged, a raucous physical comedy with lots of opportunity for improv.

That last one is the production that Outvisible Theater is staging this week, and not without some of the same hassle that the Bard may well have experienced in his time in Elizabethan England

On opening night, for example, the plan was to perform the comedy in the parking lot outside Outvisible’s space in Allen Park, a few steps away from a Dairy Queen. What could be better than a dip-cone and improvised Shakespearean farce on steamy July night. But the good constabulary of Allen Park got complaints from neighbors in the hybrid commercial/residential neighborhood during dress rehearsal/tech night, and thus had to move the performance indoors to the company’s studio space. Methinks they doth protested too much.

No matter, though. For those wanting the outdoor experience, the Outvisible trio of players provided a free-ticket performace with the City of Detroit last night at Campus Martius Park on Cadillac Square.

The performance, by Jeremy St, Martin, Billy Eric Robinson and Gerald Hyner more than lives up to the all-out, leave-it-all-on-the field approach that one expects of this show. It has a script, yes. But the real delight in seeing Complete Works is always what the players will dial in to a performance in terms of new lines to reflect contemporary cultural touchpoints, improv and slapstick: a reference to the Broadway show Hamilton, for example, and a rap sequence.

The point of the show is to try and cram all 37 Shakespeare plays into 97 minutes…or a little longer, depending on how smoothly the improvish parts go.

As far as slapstick goes, there is no shortage, with Billy Eric Robinson bringing the most moisture to the show–between his visible flop-sweat from all his running around and several douses with a water bottle. He also dons the wig to play Ophelia. Methinks he would have been right at home on Sid Caesar’s “Show of Shows” with a seltzer bottle. Too, if the company ever does a play about the Three Stooges, Robinson is their Curly Joe.

Hyner and St. Martin alternate playing straight man to Robinson, and have plenty of good moments of their own. St. Martin does seem a bit pre-occupied with a retractable stage knife, but it is all to good effect.

There is no set in the studio space in which I saw the show performed, which will be reprised on July 8 and 9 in Allen Park. But there are plenty of props, all of which look they were plucked from a basement toy box.

The two hour performance with a ten-minute intermission (necessary I think to give the boys time to cool down and have some ice water) feels something akin to the culmination of a four-week acting class, with ragged edges and improv that at times feels a bit labored, though certainly not totally lost.

It’s a fun night of Shakespeare send-up, reminding me here and there of something the late great Robin Williams would do to tease the Bard. Seeing Williams do this show would have been an epic theater experience. As is, I think you’ll like it, as Shakespeare sort of titled one of his plays.

Click here for show days, times and details.