As Shakespeare once wrote, tragedy is easy, comedy is hard.

        Okay, Shakespeare never did write that, which is surprising because he wrote just about everything else.

        Cincinnati Shakespeare Festival is celebrating the holiday season with The Compleat Works of Wllm Shkspr (abridged). On opening night the comedy, which spends two hours skewering the Bard's 37 plays, was coming hard, at least too much of it was. The show really only works when it rides at a plateau of effortlessness and "spontaneity'.

        It's easy to give this one the benefit of the doubt. With the able and engaging Nick Rose, Giles Davies and Sylvester Little, Jr. throwing all their considerable charm and amiability at even the least inspired skits, Compleat Works should find its comic rhythm by the end of opening weekend.

        The show is a collection of skits, a lot of which resemble something you'd see while hanging out at a Renaissance Festival.

        The histories are presented cleverly as a football game, the crown being passed from bloody king to bloody king. The comedies (16 of them) get scrunched into one bit that affectionately points out that the Bard was inordinately fond of shipwrecks, twins, girls disguised as boys and dozens of characters unable to find their way out of a forest.

        Early sketch Romeo and Juliet is a slog, and on opening night the show didn't catch fire until the trio cut loose on Mr. Little's Othello rap, which is an improved replacement for the original, written way back in 1987. There have been several necessary updatings since those dark ages, and there are timely references to Agent Mulder and George Dubya, Keanu Reeves and Florida voting.

        The festival promised several references to its own history in Compleat Works, but only the obsessed will recognize and/or appreciate them. The fight scene in R&J is a non-starter, although Mr. Rose does have some fun with a shoe, a la Waiting for Godot.

        Thirty-six of the plays get their comeuppance in the first act, where the chief pleasures are in the performances: Mr. Little's marvelous physicality, Mr. Davies' always intriguing choices, Mr. Rose such a good actor that he persuades you he's having the time of his life.

        Lucky Mr. Little gets to play all Shakespeare's heroines and he looks very good in drag, although the girls have an unfortunate tendency to vomit on the audience.

        The second act is devoted to The Big One, also known as Hamlet, so epic in its proportions that it demands everything from audience participation (think Id, think Ego, think Super Ego, or don't think at all) to sock puppets to enact what many consider to be The Second Greatest Story Ever Told.

        Part of the reason that Compleat Works is a little late to gel could be that director Rebecca Bowman is going after a little more than adolescent goofing. Compleat Works more often than not settles for a frat boy sensibility that gets old fast. There's a genuine sense of bonhomie and comaraderie in this production which is tougher to get to but has a bigger pay-off in the long run.

        Let the Bard be with you.

        The Compleat Works of Wllm Shkspr (abridged), Cincinnati Shakespeare Festival, through Dec. 17, 381-2273.

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