Both Lamb’s Players and Sledgehammer Theatre have decided that the public couldn’t wait until summer to taste the vintage words of William Shakespeare. Two of the Bard’s most famous productions, Hamlet and Macbeth, are being served up like a hot and tasty meal on a winter’s eve in San Diego.

Director Robert Smyth shaved off about one-third of the original script in an effort to provide a faster-paced, more easily accessible Hamlet to playgoers who may find it difficult to sit on their derrières for four full hours. Shakespeare aficionados may cry out fowl but for many who are anxious to get through some of the more extended, metaphorical passages to witness multiple murder mayhem, it very well may be a welcome change.

Nick Cordileone’s Hamlet is an externalized interpretation of one of the most famous protagonists in the history of theatre. His portrayal is nuanced, but the dramatic highs and lows seem reigned in somehow, in a deliberate effort not to overpower the other characters in Lamb’s ensemble of actors.

The entire cast is competent if not outstanding. No one seems to outshine the other. No soliloquy stands apart, no action seems to dazzle alone, and no dramatic fire is ever raging out of control. It’s all competently contained.

The set and sound design follow this dramatic restraint as well. Multileveled staircases mark the various playing fields well, but result in an almost sterile set of coppers and rust. The live Elizabethan musical accompaniment is subtle, insinuating a pleasant introduction as well as musical interludes throughout the production. And the costumes seem to blend easily into the dimly lit set.

All that being said, this Hamlet still pleases and provides a lite Shakespearean meal to many who prefer not to feast on an overload of extended historical and metaphorical information. It succeeds most especially in inviting those too timid to tackle a full four-hour script, preferring a Clift’s Notes-variety that is somewhat more accessible and more easily digested.

It’s still a great ghost story. The ghost of Hamlet’s father haunts the castle, seeking revenge against his wife and brother, Claudius, for his murder “most foul.” Hamlet can’t believe that everyone else within the castle walls accepts these events — including his mother’s sudden marriage to Claudius — as normal, all content to look the other way and go about their business as before. It ends in a family blood bath; a sweet revenge indeed.

Sledgehammer’s Macbeth doesn’t look as homogenized as Lamb’s Hamlet. Directed by Kirsten Brandt, a recipient of the Craig Noel Award for excellence in theatre in 2003, the tone and ensemble direction works on a totally different plane.

Macbeth’s stage design immediately sets the dramas apart from one another. Here the players are provided a multi-level field of dark, metallic and slate-looking pathways, heavily adorned with dark drapery. The players occasionally occupy translucent hideaways as well as stage holes for entries and exits that add effect to the drama.

The witches make their entrance with almost a mummified presence. Said to be a manifestation of evil, they contort with covered faces and twitching body movements that convey an eerie manner that underlies the prophecy: that Macbeth will be promoted to Thane of Cawdor and then to king of Scotland. Lady Macbeth just helps things along for her husband, assisting in the killing of Duncan to get the crown. Both are mired in a degree of insanity, unable to cope with what they have just done in the name of power.

Both Brandt and Smyth edited out much of the historical and political references in the plays, but Macbeth suffers less for the cuts. It allows for a far more dramatic playing of the characters.

The actors are sometimes even extensions of the stage, reciting from atop metal projections and the like. These are supercharged, energized performances with a physicality not found in the rather staid Hamlet. They evoke internalized trauma in dramatic, winded tantrums that seem to release their inner selves like projectiles to the audience.

Costuming efforts ran the gamut from military fatigues, to a hot-pink, black-veiled dress, to a jogging outfit. It seemed somehow to fit the shifting political mood of the times that was in a state of great flux.

The original sound design by Jeff Mockus underscored the acting and reset the changing dramatic moods throughout the production beautifully. Cuthbert’s lighting design bathed the set in a fierce tautness, while isolating individual actors from different angles and depths as if to compartmentalize their emotions.

The range of the actors is varied. David Tierney’s Macbeth was balanced with both a riveting, masculine charm and a believable touch of madness. Janet Hayatshahi’s Lady Macbeth initially carried the power of an invincible woman, while later she displayed the erosion of her marriage and psychological downfall with panache.

Jeremiah Maestas, last seen in Love, Valor & Compassion, demonstrates that he can handle not only a modern drama, but the multiple roles of Malcolm, a murderer and a witch, with relative ease. His diction fell trippingly from his tongue in an effort that seemed far more natural than others in the cast that couldn’t quite find the subtlety required for their assigned role.

If my introduction to Shakespeare was this production of Macbeth I would be an immediate fan of the Bard. If Hamlet was my introduction, I could be persuaded to take another course. Both have their own unique flavor and both are worthy entries into the world created by that genius of Elizabethan drama, William Shakespeare.

Hamlet plays at Lambs Playhouse through March 7. Call (619) 437-0600 for tickets. Macbeth is at Sledgehammer’s St. Cecilia’s Playhouse through March 21. Call (619) 544-1484 for tickets.