It takes 85 hours, but playwright-director Gordy Hoffman, brother of Philip Seymour, believes in his annual back-to-back Shakespeare Marathon. From Sept. 25-28, Los Angeles residents can pop in at the MET Theatre at any hour of the day or night and catch Timon of Athens, Much Ado About Nothing or The Tempest.

The free event is open to anyone — to watch, to eat and or even to read. Those interested in participating, be they a theatre company or an individual, can contact the MET Theatre at http://www.theMETtheatre.com or by calling the Marathon Hotline at (310) 289-1475.

Hoffman won the 2002 Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award for "Love, Liza," a new independent film starring his brother and Kathy Bates. Hoffman's plays include Bevakasha, A Stab at Fixing, Frozen Cat, Happyland, Outdoor MAAN and A Better Weather Blanket. With Chicago's experimental Company Theatre, he directed Titus Andronicus and She Ventures and He Wins.

Shakespeare's canon includes 101,919 lines, which, Hoffman noted in a release, travels by at about 19.751 lines per minute. The shortest play is The Comedy of Errors, while the longest is Hamlet. The play order will not be the same as last years festival (after all, who really wants to watch Timon of Athens at 5:55 AM?), but the marathon will end with Henry VIII, whose last word, incidentally, is "clap" ("All the best men are ours; for 'tis ill hap,/ If they hold when their ladies bid 'em clap").

The MET Theare is located at 1089 North Oxford Avenue. For reservations to the benefit, call (310) 289-1475. Donations are accepted at the Company Theatre's Shakespeare Marathon at the MET. — By Christine Ehren