ISU Bengal

Issue date: 3/30/05 Section: News

Media Credit: Lavanya Vasudevan The actors of The Reduced Shakespeare Company perform in Frazier Auditorium.

A torrent of laughter overwhelmed Frazier Auditorium Friday night, at the eye of which tromped three men: The Reduced Shakespeare Company. Nary a dull moment, the warning found on the program/course syllabus proved abundantly accurate: "This show is a high-speed, roller-coaster type condensation of all the great books..." Two hours and countless aching stomachs later, the trio left amidst an honest, prolonged standing ovation, high-fiving the lucky, and at times participating front row all the while.

The set was rife with nostalgia galore, including fitting rock tunes for each juncture in the show (Smoking in the Boys' Room during mid-show "recess"), an audience inclusive reading of the Pledge of Allegiance (omitting "under god" for "this line optional"), and an ocean of savvy pop-culture quips that sustained jubilant laughter throughout every second of the show.

The show began as "Coach" (Reed Martin) entered through the audience, demanding that the music be shut off as he positioned himself before a white-board at stage left. Here, in authentic coaching fashion, he established the context for the rest of the show. The audience would play the role of a remedial college literature class cramming All the Great Books in time to graduate, in just two hours. Of the nearly one hundred books were included 1984, A Tale of Two Cities, Tom Jones, and The Wizard of Oz. "Professor" (Austin Tichenor) next entered. An eloquent literature scholar, Tichenor would later perform an awe-inspiring medley of classic poetic verse mixed with sharp humorous riffs along the way (think the Bee-Gee's Stayin' Alive and Poe's The Raven). Next entered the wildly energetic and at times wet-behind-the-ears student teacher, "Dominic" (Dominic Conti). Conti's character spouted nearly foul Dr. Seuss type rhyme and maintained a show-long commitment to include The Lord of The Rings trilogy ("Did you know they wrote a book based on the movies?") into the curriculum, the culmination of which finds Conti if full Gandalf garb.

While at least briefly touching on every book on the syllabus, the trio concentrated much of their performance on interpreting a few select works. These included a fully rhymed rendition of Homer's Iliad, a hilarious crash-course on Alcott's Little Women, and an epically impressive version of the lengthy War and Peace.

Continued...

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