Melbourne’s long-established outdoor Shakespeare specialists usually offer a comedy and a drama each summer. This season, perhaps acknowledging the dark times we’re living in, it’s all laughs – or at least that’s the intention.

Unfortunately, the undergraduate humour of Shakespeare’s Best Bits wears thin after a while, despite the cast’s energy, comic commitment and timing. In this mashup written and directed by Australian Shakespeare Company’s founder and Artistic Director, Glenn Elston, they play the amateur thespians of A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

Scott Jackson, Peter Houghton and Hugh Sexton in Shakespeare’s Best Bits. Photo © Ben Fon

These “rude mechanicals” have yet to choose their play for the Athenian king’s wedding. With help from the audience, Bottom (Peter Houghton), Starveling (Hugh Sexton), Snug (Maddie Somers), Flute (Alex Cooper) and Snout (Scott Jackson) persuade their leader, Peter Quince (Jackson McGovern), that they should consider options other than his original work, Pyramus and Thisbe.

They quickly workshop several plays by Shakespeare, starting with Macbeth. Alongside Punch and Judy-style puppet witches that pop above the rudimentary set, the cast romps around in tartan, including Houghton wearing little more than a novelty apron and McGovern in drag as Lady Macbeth; drag is a constant in Shakespeare’s Best Bits.

Hugh Sexton and Scott Jackson in Shakespeare’s Best Bits. Photo © Ben Fon

This Macbeth is fast and fairly funny if you don’t mind broad humour, from increasingly unlikely music each time a door opens, to a cricket bat replacing a misplaced prop dagger. Other takes include Hamlet in a MasterChef setting complete with wooden-spoon duel, and a rap duet that neatly summarises King Lear.

However, what is diverting for a while becomes tedious in an increasingly frenetic, farcical second half. A promising but ultimately inexplicable boot scootin’ introduction leads to a Romeo and Juliet mock ballet, an opera buffa-meets-Wagner Othello, and Antony and Cleopatra in the style of a musical at Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas.

While this two-hour (plus interval) comic pastiche might seem attractive to those disinclined to sit through a Shakespeare play, I wonder if it would make much sense to anyone who doesn’t know the source material well. Even those who do may at times be bamboozled by Elston’s script, which is more madcap original than cut-and-paste Shakespeare.

Jackson McGovern in Shakespeare’s Best Bits. Photo © Ben Fon

The cast of Australian Shakespeare Company regulars leverage their experience to get the audience onside quickly, and for the most part keep them there despite the hit-and-miss jokes. Their characters are distinct and appealing: McGovern’s intense, self-important Quince, for example; the shy, dim-witted Snug of Somers; and Houghton’s bumbling nobility as Bottom.

Musical Director Paul Norton’s contribution is never more important than in Antony and Cleopatra. Jackson crooning Vegas-style through snippets of retro favourites such as Midnight at the Oasis brings some focus to this muddle.

Peter Amesbury’s lighting and the costumes by Kaspa and Karla Erenbots offer colourful eye candy throughout Shakespeare’s Best Bits. Head-to-toe tartan, ancient Egyptian bling and various garish drag looks – including a proverbial fat lady who sings with horned helmet – is enthusiastically unsubtle.

That’s the play’s modus operandi, which usually works well for Australian Shakespeare Company’s al fresco summer comedies by The Bard. This Frankenstein script needs greater clarity and sharper humour, however, so audiences planning a night of theatre at the Royal Botanic Gardens should consider waiting until Twelfth Night opens.

Shakespeare’s Best Bits continues at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Melbourne, until 17 January.