In 2012-2013, the Reduced Shakespeare Company will be performing The Ultimate Christmas Show (abridged), The Complete World of Sports (abridged) and in the fall of 2012 The Complete History of America (abridged), 600 Years of History in 6000 Seconds…History Will Never Be The Same!
America (abridged)
From Washington to Watergate, yea verily from the Bering Straits to Baghdad, from New World to New World Order – The Complete History of America (abridged) is a ninety minute rollercoaster ride through the glorious quagmire that is American History, reminding us that it’s not the length of your history that matters – it’s what you’ve done with it! The three cultural guerillas of the Reduced Shakespeare Company tackle such controversial questions as: Who really discovered America? Why did Abe Lincoln free the slaves? How many Democrats does it take to screw in a lightbulb? History is normally written by the winners… now it’s the RSC’s turn.
“An apt description of what the company does is intellectual vaudeville. They are smart, cheeky clowns who present themselves as a collective repository for most of American mass culture.” Stephen Holden—
New York Times “History has never been this much fun. Or as delightfully mutilated.” Bill Brownstein—
Montreal Gazette “What the “Daily Show” might be like if it were hosted by the Marx Brothers.”
Boston Herald Sports (abridged) From the earliest cavemen playing “Neanderthal in the Middle” to your own kid’s soccer practice, the entire history of athletic competition will be regurgitated in a tour de france of physical theater, at a level of sophistication and pathos that only the RSC can muster. It’ll be a marathon of madness and mayhem as the world’s great sporting events are shrunk down to theatrical size.
“Owes as much to the insanity of Monty Python as to the inanity of actual sports programs.”
Boston Globe “I loved it! It is smart, funny - even unexpectedly insightful and moving.” Scott Simon—
National Public Radio “Comedy isn’t easy, but you’d never know it watching this trio hit it out of the park.”
Broadway World ... read full bioThe Reduced Shakespeare Company is a world-renown three-man comedy troupe that takes long, serious subjects and reduces them to short, sharp comedies.
Since its 1981 origins as a pass-the-hat act in California, the “Bad Boys of Abridgement” have created eight stage shows, two television specials, several failed TV pilots, and numerous radio pieces – all of which have been performed, seen, and heard the world over. The company’s itinerary has included stops at the White House, the Kennedy Center, Lincoln Center, London’s West End, Seattle Repertory Theatre, American Repertory Theatre and Montreal’s Just For Laughs Festival, as well as performances in Israel, Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Japan, Malta, Belgium, The Netherlands, Barbados, Dubai, Singapore and Bermuda – plus countless civic and university venues throughout the USA, Great Britain and Ireland. The company’s first three shows, The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged), The Complete History of America (abridged) and The Bible: The Complete Word of God (abridged) ran for nine years at the Criterion Theatre in Piccadilly Circus. They were London’s longest-running comedies, and the RSC had more shows running in the West End than Andrew Lloyd Webber. They were also funnier.
The RSC unveiled a brand-new show in 2011: The Ultimate Christmas Show (abridged), an irreverent but heartwarming trip through the holidays which broke box office records at Merrimack Repertory Theatre. The Complete World of Sports (abridged) premiered the previous year and is a merciless but affectionate skewering of all things sporting which has garnered rave reviews Off-Broadway, at the Kennedy Center and in London’s West End. The RSC condensed literature into a 90-minute roller-coaster ride in All The Great Books (abridged), which has played to packed houses at the Kennedy Center, Pittsburgh Public Theatre, San Diego Repertory Theatre, Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, Seattle’s ACT Theatre, and Alabama Shakespeare Festival, as well as Great Britain, Holland, Ireland, and Sweden (in Swedish!).
They also applied their fast, funny and physical approach to World History in Western Civilization: The Complete Musical (abridged) [original title: The Complete Millennium Musical (abridged)], which toured simultaneously in the US, UK and Australia, and the Movies in Completely Hollywood (abridged), which skewers the 197 greatest films of all time and has received raves across the US, UK, Belgium, Holland, Hong Kong, and Barbados.
For televsion the RSC compressed the first five seasons of Lost into a ten-minute film called Lost Reduced, and was a Jeopardy! category in the 2005 and 2006 Tournaments of Champions. They wrote and starred in The Ring Reduced, a half-hour version of Wagner’s Ring Cycle for Channel 4 (UK), and reduced the Edinburgh Festival for BBC and the soap opera Glenroe for RTE Ireland. Shakespeare (abridged) aired on PBS and is available on DVD, as is America (abridged). Numerous other TV appearances include NBC’s Today Show, CBS Sunday Morning, Entertainment Tonight, CNN’s Showbiz This Week, and New Zealand’s Celebrity Wheel of Fortune (they lost).
For National Public Radio, the RSC has been heard on All Things Considered, Weekend Edition, Talk of the Nation, Day to Day, West Coast Live, and To The Best of Our Knowledge. The BBC World Service commissioned the six-part Reduced Shakespeare Radio Show. The Reduced Shakespeare Company Christmas was heard on Public Radio International.
RSC scripts are published in the US and UK, and translated into over a dozen languages. The Radio Show, RSC Christmas, and Millennium Musical (abridged) are all available on CD and from iTunes.
The RSC won the prestigious Shorty Award for its use of Twitter and has been nominated for an Olivier Award in London, two Helen Hayes Awards in Washington, DC, the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle Award, and several podcast awards. RSC scripts are published in the US and UK, and translated into over a dozen languages. The RSC Radio Show, RSC Christmas, and Bible (abridged) are all available on CD and from iTunes. Broadway Play Publishing publishes their scripts. The RSC also creates unique entertainments for corporate events, working with such companies as Sky-TV, Time Magazine, Motorola, Citibank, and Rotary International.
Reduced Shakespeare: The Complete Readers Guide for the Attention-Impaired (abridged) (Hyperion) is available in bookstores everywhere. And the free 20-minute Reduced Shakespeare Company Podcast is available every week at iTunes and here on our website.
Last updated August 2012. Contact Opus 3 Artists for the most up-to-date version.
