`THE COMPLEAT WORKS OF WLLM SHKSPR (ABRIDGED)' OPENS FRIDAY

Rob Felker and family were in New York for a bout of playgoing when, off-Broadway, they ran across "The Compleat Works of Wllm Shkspr (abridged)."

"That was the funniest show I ever saw," said Felker, a senior at Central High School.

He bought the script and, with classmate Nick Ryan, later performed one of the scenes in a theater competition.

Now Felker, Ryan and River City Players President George Kralemann have mounted the full uproarious and irreverent show, which features cross-dressing actors, character psychoanalysis, "Titus Andronicus" as a cooking show, an inflatable doll and enough mayhem to shame the Three Stooges.

The comedy will be performed at 6:30 p.m. Friday, Saturday and Sunday at The Raven coffee house, 731 Broadway. Admission is $4.

"The Compleat Works of Wllm Shkspre (abridged)" is as advertised. Every one of Shakespeare's plays is at least mentioned by name. The entire second act is devoted to "Hamlet," which actually is performed in increasingly abridged versions about five times -- one of them backwards.

For Kralemann, memorable most recently as Petey Fisk in the River City Players' production of "Greater Tuna," this comedy is "the biggest farce ever imagined. Someone called it the biggest stupid human trick ever seen."

Kralemann is the veteran of the cast, a Southeast graduate who teaches second grade at Zalma.

Ryan is a sophomore at Central High who already has had a brilliant career playing oddball characters -- Velasco in "Barefoot in the Park," Teddy in "Arsenic and Old Lace" and Ali Hakim in "Oklahoma." In "TCWWSa" he dons a braided wig and dresses as Juliet, Desdemona and Ophelia.

"I appreciate the freedom," he wryly says of the acting opportunity to change sexes.

Felker, who will begin studying languages in the fall at DePaul University in Chicago, had an illustrious theater career at Central High. He played Mortimer in "Arsenic and Old Lace," Will in "Oklahoma" and Rolfe in "The Sound of Music."

In "TCWWSa" he fights duels, participates in a rap version of "Othello" and hopes to kiss Ryan's Juliet.

Rachel Roberts, another Central senior, has assisted with the production, running lines and providing direction.

The only difference between the off-Broadway comedy and the River City Players' is "They had a theater with real lights and sound," Felker says.

"This is Shakespeare raw," Kralemann said.