Review by Steve Bennett

After taking on the Bard, the Bible and the history of America the Reduced Shakespeare Company have now chosen to focus on their attentions on the engine that drives their work: comedy. Though it’s somewhat ironic that although this production is entertaining, it’s often the comedy that lets them down.

You can’t fault the slickness and stagecraft of the trio: long-term members Reed Martin and Austin Tichenor plus new recruit Dominic Conti. Getting through the Bard’s works in an hour takes a certain tightness of performance, and their performance here is taut and versatile, if a little stagey. Slapstick, puppets, songs, quick-changes and a lot of vaudevillian high jinks are deployed in the service of the story.

They’ve chopped their topic into 13 sections; claiming them to be the chapters of a mysterious book on the subject that they discovered, but with the last pages missing. Why this particular MacGuffin, I’m not sure, since it requires a clunking, unnecessary denouement for an artificial plot no one much cared about anyway.

The other 12 chapters are an inconsistent affair, too. The ukulele ditty praising comedians gone by is engagingly affectionate; but imagining Abraham Lincoln as a stand-up is a real slog; leaving the president to die in a theatre once more. A recreation of a silent movie is a fine display of physical comedy, an improv game at the end a display of awkward flailing, not helped by asking too much of the audience volunteers. The puppet song parody gets tired quickly – they are supposed to be the Supreme Court who become The Supremes and change ‘love’ for ‘law’ in all the lyrics – but the music-hall style comic overselling his jokes is a delight.

Their best moments jettison the glib for a sincerity about the history of their art, especially when they combine genuine information with related sketches such as the summary of the main characters in Commedia dell’Arte or a centuries-old Vatican joke book inspiring the trio becoming monks to intone ancient gags. Moments like this are very reminiscent of Horrible Histories, in a good way, and indeed this whole show is family friendly, too.

This RSC are often not too subtle, which sometimes can provide refreshingly old-school fun – custard pies remain a source of tension, for example – but their use of national stereotypes jars. An Irishman is briefly depicted in leprechaun hat, ginger beard and jigging, while the Japanese man is a slanty-eyed sumo.

If only their script was as consistently tight and inventive as their performances.

Review date: 25 Aug 2014
Reviewed by: Steve Bennett
Reviewed at: Pleasance Courtyard