Tuesday, 12 July 2011 10:04 pm
(no subject)
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
deckardcanineHmm, I don't seem to have mentioned on LJ last year when I watched Completely Hollywood (Abridged). Guess I forgot. And now I've put off my review of last Saturday's The Complete World of Sports (Abridged) until today. This was the sixth Reduced Shakespeare Company performance I've seen; the only one I haven't is The Bible: The Complete Word of God (Abridged), which might or might not appeal to me nowadays.
It's hard for me to pick a favorite RSC play, because I've seen them at such different points in my life. When I saw The Complete History of America (Abridged) at 13, I didn't even know before that Lincoln had been assassinated. That meant a lot of missed punchlines, but I still laughed quite a bit at some of the lower-brow fare of the evening. I'm pretty sure it wouldn't be my favorite today, tho, unless it's been revised with better organization. Similarly, when I saw their original play, The Complete Works of Shakespeare (Abridged), I had read only one Shakespeare play and couldn't remember any film adaptations, but I felt free to share some of the jokes with friends later. Things were different by college, when I watched the overreaching All the Great Books (Abridged) and had a passing knowledge of about half the references.
Easily my least favorite production was of The Complete Millennium Musical (Abridged) in 1999. It's a real shame, because while probably none of these performances had the same three actors, only that one included a woman, perhaps for an extra singing dimension. Perhaps one problem was that it didn't really call on audience members, individually or as a whole, to participate at any point; the closest it came was the traditional light water spraying into the first couple rows. Even so, there were a few moments worth a chuckle.
With the latest two plays, especially Sports, they seem to be cutting back on humor that appeals to a rather elite knowledge of the subject. Nevertheless, the feel is unmistakably RSC. Elements of Sports hearken back to several previous plays, even finding a suitable way to recycle "Show me the Monet!" As always, some of the jokes are corny, dated, and/or sick, but the delivery is invariably expert. Once they even made comedy gold out of a weak audience reaction; I'm not sure they do that every time.
My whole immediate family came this time, in contrast to just me and Dad for Hollywood, and we were all glad to have come. That said, we'll skip the upcoming RSC Christmas special. It sounds relatively limited in scope, ergo not as rushed and more predictable.
It's hard for me to pick a favorite RSC play, because I've seen them at such different points in my life. When I saw The Complete History of America (Abridged) at 13, I didn't even know before that Lincoln had been assassinated. That meant a lot of missed punchlines, but I still laughed quite a bit at some of the lower-brow fare of the evening. I'm pretty sure it wouldn't be my favorite today, tho, unless it's been revised with better organization. Similarly, when I saw their original play, The Complete Works of Shakespeare (Abridged), I had read only one Shakespeare play and couldn't remember any film adaptations, but I felt free to share some of the jokes with friends later. Things were different by college, when I watched the overreaching All the Great Books (Abridged) and had a passing knowledge of about half the references.
Easily my least favorite production was of The Complete Millennium Musical (Abridged) in 1999. It's a real shame, because while probably none of these performances had the same three actors, only that one included a woman, perhaps for an extra singing dimension. Perhaps one problem was that it didn't really call on audience members, individually or as a whole, to participate at any point; the closest it came was the traditional light water spraying into the first couple rows. Even so, there were a few moments worth a chuckle.
With the latest two plays, especially Sports, they seem to be cutting back on humor that appeals to a rather elite knowledge of the subject. Nevertheless, the feel is unmistakably RSC. Elements of Sports hearken back to several previous plays, even finding a suitable way to recycle "Show me the Monet!" As always, some of the jokes are corny, dated, and/or sick, but the delivery is invariably expert. Once they even made comedy gold out of a weak audience reaction; I'm not sure they do that every time.
My whole immediate family came this time, in contrast to just me and Dad for Hollywood, and we were all glad to have come. That said, we'll skip the upcoming RSC Christmas special. It sounds relatively limited in scope, ergo not as rushed and more predictable.