Skip to main content

Past Event

Performing Arts Series

Reduced Shakespeare Company’s All the Great Books (abridged)

Little Dickens. Short Longfellow. Reduced Proust… All the Great Books. As anyone named Cliff will tell you, Less is More. The Literary Canon explodes as the bad boys of abridgement again unleash comic outrage on an unsuspecting public. America’s best loved comedy troupe takes you on a 98 minute roller- coaster ride through its compact compendium of 89 of the world’s great books in All The Great Books (abridged). It’s 1.1 books per minute (on average). Confused by Confucius? Thrown by Thoreau? Wish Swift was faster? Aiming for an ace of Tennyson? Then hop aboard and buckle up as the three cultural guerrillas of the Reduced Shakespeare Company zip through everything you should have read in school but probably didn’t. It’s a blast of bibliography. You’ve seen their PBS special. You’ve heard them on National Public Radio. They are officially London’s longest-running comedy troupe, and have broken box-office records at the Kennedy Center, Seattle Repertory Theatre, and the Pittsburgh Public Theatre. What are you waiting for? Tempus fugit! Reductio ad absurdum.

In the spirit of Shakespeare himself, RSC shows contain some occasional bawdy language and mild innuendo. All children (and parents) are different, so we’ve chosen to rate our shows PG- 13: Pretty Good If You’re Thirteen.

What the Critics Say…

“Inspired lunatics! Funny, funny show… Brilliant!”

~ The Charlotte Observer

“Raucously funny! Inspired, crazed ridiculousness!” ~ The Buffalo News

“Literature’s greatest hits condensed into a 90-minute roller-coaster ride of hilarity.” ~ The Atlanta Journal Constitution

“Verbally dexterous and physically agile. The show darts from satire to silliness to sophisticated irreverence.” ~ The Boston Globe

“…come see how three accomplished performers can turn your literary ignorance into a polished evening’s entertainment.” ~ The Seattle Times

“Intertextuality can rarely have felt so frantic or so funny.” ~ The Scotsman, Edinburgh

Website: www.reducedshakespeare.com