Any English major or lover of literature can attest to the necessity of literary aids such as Sparknotes or CliffsNotes. However, it won't help much when in a jam for a major English exam.
Luckily, the theatrical presentation of "All the Great Books (abridged)" makes late-night cramming a thing of the past. This play provides a comical rundown of every storyline known to classic literature, with political jokes that swim laps around the toilet bowl. Studying for finals will now be easy as pie with this presentation by the Reduced Shakespeare Company at the Studio Arena Theater, playing through April 9.
The story takes place in a classroom and the audience plays the students who failed remedial reading and has to retake it in order to graduate in two hours. Michael Faulkner plays a dramatic connoisseur of literature. Mick Ofre plays Coach, the quintessential football/basketball/baseball trainer who relates everything to the playing field but knows more than expected about the topic at hand. Brent Tubbs plays Brent, the high school alumnus who came back to prove that he still doesn't know anything about anything.
"Class" begins with the entire audience and attending students standing up to pledge allegiance to the flag. The discussion immediately dives into the works of Charles Dickens' "Great Expectorations" and the "Tale of Two Titties." Coach then does a rundown of "Little Women" in football terms, but latecomers interrupt class by asking various audience members if they "brought a note."
The two known works by Homer, "The Iliad" and "The Odyssey" are combined for a quick rendition which they call the "Idiodity," before the midterm is given out for the students to take during intermission. The lone question on the midterm is, "What are the two greatest books ever written and why?" which are to be handed in before Act Two begins and are read aloud.
Act Two consists of a humorous summation of "Ulysses" with a spoken inner monologue and names the three great British writers of all time: Jane Austen, Mary Ann Evans, who wrote under the pen name of George Eliot, and Virginia Woolf. The actors then bring a lucky member of the audience up onstage to be Woolf and they proceed to play the Dating Game.
The Reduced Shakespeare Company is known for taking long, serious subjects and reducing them into short, sharp, and risqu?(c) comedies, but some members of the audience felt the dirty humor was taken a little further than necessary.
"The actors are extremely talented, but they seem a little frantic," said Ann Heraty, a resident of Hamburg. "There are too many double meanings, and it makes the show seem like it's losing something, like it's not true humor."
"All the Great Books (abridged)" was written and directed by Reed Martin and Austin Tichenor, with additional material by Matthew Croke and Michael Faulkner. The act began in California and has traveled worldwide, breaking off into six different stage shows including "The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged)," and "The Bible: The Complete Word of God (abridged)." The Reduced Shakespeare Company has also created two TV programs and numerous radio pieces.
"All the Great Books (abridged)" will be performed at the Studio Arena Theater in the Theater District in downtown Buffalo through April 9. Tickets are available online at www.studioarena.org or by calling the Studio Arena box office at 716-856-5650.
