A one-man show about two worlds in a three-ring circus: that’s Roger Rees’ “What You Will,” a 90-minute whirlwind from, about and over Shakespeare. The show is onstage at the American Conservatory Theater through Aug. 9.

The two worlds, explored equally by Rees, are the soaring poetry of Shakespeare as recited superbly by the actor, and the term paper/Web abuse of the Bard — the latter, as exemplified in outbursts from the young crying “wish Shakespeare was dead” all the way to Voltaire saying that those plays constitute “an enormous dunghill, appreciated only in London and Canada.”

Rees, who received an Oliver and a Tony Award for playing the title character of “Nicholas Nickleby” and was a famed member of the Royal Shakespeare Company for two decades, may be best known to Americans for numerous television appearances. Dressed casually, alone in the spotlight, Rees is a frantic presence — even at age 64 — but pleasantly and entertainingly so.

He mixes recitals of the great soliloquies with popular put-downs of the Man from Avon and adds personal recollections — funny ones — from his life in the theater.

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He also reads from fascinating stories about Shakespeare from great writers. Rees’ telling of James Thurber’s “The Macbeth Murder Mystery” — in which an American tourist to England absolves both the Scottish king and “Mrs. Macbeth” — is well worth the price of admission.

As all British stage actors, Rees paid his dues by spending years performing nonspeaking minor roles; a “mime artist,” he calls it.

In the 1970s, at the RSC, Rees and Ben Kingsley worked together in a shared supernumerary limbo. “Well,” intones Rees, “Kingsley has been knighted and he won the Academy Award, but me? I made it to ‘Grey’s Anatomy.’” And so he did, as Dr. Colin Marlow, happily patting the posterior of Sandra Oh’s Dr. Cristina Yang.

He also was Lord John Marbury on “The West Wing” and the charming criminal Robin Colcord on “Cheers” — and so on.

Still, his career and the play “What You Will” always return to the holiest of holy: Shakespeare.

IF YOU GO

Roger Rees’ ‘What You Will’

Where: American Conservatory Theater, 415 Geary St., San Francisco

When: 8 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays, 3 p.m. Sundays; closes Aug. 9

Tickets: $29 to $59

Contact: (415) 749-2228 or visit  www.act-sf.org