SHAKESPEARE revision aids could soon be a thing of the past thanks to a rather novel version of the Bard's works.

Not only do the Reduced Shakespeare Company pack all 37 plays into 97 minutes, they explain them as well.

Thus we learn that the Bard really meant Othello to be performed as a rap, you can condense the 16 comedies into one play and, hey, why bother, because the tragedies are funnier than the comedies anyway.

In the hands of the Reduced Shakespeare Company, Macbeth ends up as a fight between Celtic and Rangers fans and they reveal that the tragedies work much better when played out as a game of American football - the crown is past from the quarterback to the hunchback.

Finally they turn their attention to Hamlet, which they can do in 17 seconds, three seconds and even backwards.

The Reduced Shakespeare Company are at Cheltenham until Saturday. You'd have to be as mad as Ophelia to miss it. AW