Column Chronicles: Bad Shakespeare, part one

Bad Shakespeare, part one

Frank Cotolo
January 1, 2026

There is a new craze in the theatre world. Groups of actors and poets are rewriting the works of William Shakespeare and performing the incarnations at theatres around the world. Shakespeare works have been re-imagined for centuries but the latest craze is a new spin on The Bard's work.

"It's called Bad Shakespeare," said Ernie Handlebar, a theatre producer involved in new the new project. "We call it simply B. S. We do take the original texts of his plays and do all we can to ruin them."

Handlebar applauds the new approach. He says it allows for terrible actors to perform classic theatre pieces they could never be a part of using the original material.

"Hamlet B.S.," opened in an Aalen, Germany theatre last year to huge crowds and was held over five months.

Reganald Rectum played the title role. He said, "The new script is so easy for an untalented actor such as myself. I was the worst of one of two thousand men auditioning. The director said once he heard me the other nine thousand ninety nine auditioning never had a chance."

Director Igmar Nerdman said, "There may be no shortage of terrible actors auditioning for the B.S. productions but there's always one whose reading is shockingly brutal and that one gets the role."

Eileen Wirkstuff got the role of Lady Macbeth in a B.S. production of "The Tragedy of Macbeth" which is sold out through next year at a theatre in Frostbite Falls, Minnesota. Its director is Morton Salt. He told us about Eileen's performance.

"She gets worse with every performance," Salt said. "I am shocked any actor as dreadful as Eileen can take terrible to a whole new level. She's a real find among the scads of worthless actors out there."

...to be continued.

Frank Cotolo can be found hosting the talk and interview programme Cotolo Chronicles. You can send him an e-mail at this address: frank@148.ca.