- Title: UK: THE REDUCED SHAKESPEARE COMPANY CELEBRATES FIVE YEARS IN THE WEST END
- Date: 16th March 2000
- Summary: (PERFORMANCE CLEARANCE REQUIRED) REDUCED SHAKESPEARE COMPANY PERFORMING ROMEO AND JULIET
- Embargoed: 31st March 2000 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: LONDON, ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM
- Country: United Kingdom
- Topics: Entertainment
- Reuters ID: LVAYQ3BYRGSVOKDFWKNBDC6FBCQ
- Story Text: You may remember Shakespeare from your schooldays as dull, boring and incomprehensible, but thanks to the Reduced Shakespeare Company you can think again.The madcap American company is celebrating its fifth year in the West End, taking audiences on a whirlwind tour of all 37 Shakespeare plays in just 97 minutes, and while they certainly make the Bard more entertaining, there aren't any guarantees it will actually make sense.
Almost 20 years ago Adam Long was perfoming street theatre in California when he stepped in at the last minute to play Ophelia in a four person version of Hamlet.
He enjoyed it so much he stayed with the company, then someone suggested doing the complete works of Shakespeare, and the Reduced Shakespeare Company was born.
As the cast explain in their inimitable style, "Well, we started of in San Francisco and we watching Marx Brothers movies and Bugs Bunny cartoons and performing Shakespeare on the street at the same time and it was a mistake." "I was a fluff" "Wasn't there a little bit of substance abuse involved?" "I don't think we can say that." "Alright, it was just an accident." "Please disregard his previous comments."
"The Reduced Shakespeare Company was a happy accident" "Yeah! A bit like Kyle"
For a few years, the original members, Long, Jess Winfield and Daniel Singer took the show to Edinburgh where it was an instant hit.
Then the RSC went on to tour the US, Japan and the UK before beginning a year-long stint at the Arts Theatre in London.In 1996 they moved to the Criterion and there they have stayed, and they currently hold the honour of being the longest running comedy show in the West End.
They put their success down to giving the audience what they really want, "We just took out all the unimportant words and we get straight to the sex and killing because that's what people want to see, and Shakespeare used an awful lot of unimportant words.Stuff like thee and thou and towit, towoo, and just cut all of that old stuff out."
Of course, the RSC aren't the only people to put a new spin on Shakepeare, from West Side Story to Branagh's latest outing Love's Labour's Lost, thespians the world over are constantly coming up with fresh interpretations of the Bard.
And as films like Shakespeare in Love bring the classic plays to an ever-wider audience the actors at the RSC notice a change in the reaction to their show, "We have found that Shakespeare in Love came out the audience goes nuts for our interpretation of Romeo and Juliette, but the downside of it is that the whole audience just leaves after that's over, so they're there for the first fifteen minutes of the show and then everyone just goes."
"So we do the rest of the show, the ushers are still there because they get paid" "Sometimes we catch them before they leave, we give them their money back and they'll some back in." "And also the problem is as Juliette you get the audience shouting things like 'show us your tits' and it's a real problem because my chest."
"She did in the movie didn't she." "She did in the movie and it's completely ruined it for male actors playing the role because I am completely flat chested."
The high-energy rendition of the Complete Works of Shakespeare (abridged) relies on such inspired methods as merging all sixteen comedies into one - working on the theory that they all have the same plot devices anyway, and turning the histories into an American football game, with the crown of England being passed down the generations (King Lear is sent off for being a fictional character) But within the meticulously constricted framework, new jokes are constantly worked in a the show evolves, "The show is a living theatrical example of Darwin's theory of the evolution of species." "It started off in the ocean." "We started off performing in the ocean."
"And then we kind of got on the beach." "And then we sprouted legs and we began performing, and the show itself is an example of, every night the show is different, we never know what we're going to do and we've found that some nights we don't even do Shakespeare."
There are currently five core members in the London company, all of them know all three parts, and different combinations of players work together for different performances.
This method of working requires that they all know a huge amount of material, but also keeps the show fresh.
Although it might be assumed that the RSC's irreverent take on Shakespeare is backed up by a fondness for his work, the cast claim they stick to Stratford's finest for legal reasons, "We hate Shakespeare, we don't understand a word that he's saying, the only reason we're doing Shakespeare is because he's dead, and there's no royalties that we have to pay."
"There's no copyright problem, we can do what we want."
"What's up with that word, exeunt." "If we wanted to do E.R.
lawyers would be on our backs immediately." "Copyright would jump on our butts."
"Shakespeare you can do.We did Ben Johnson for a while but nobody came to see it, because nobody cares about Ben Johnson." "Is that they guy who got tested positive for steroids?" "He wrote some plays and stuff before he went into the Olympics."
There are different branches of the company performing in the States, and a touring company in the UK currently delighting audiences with a musical history of the millennium (performed in 100 minutes) and the London cast provide American tourists with memories of home as they perform the Complete History of America once a week at the Criterion.
On their fifth anniversary the company look set to continue their residency at the theatre for some time, but they do make a habit of condensing things, "Well the amazing thing about this fifth birthday is that its actually only our fourth year in the West End, which is a spectacular achievement, we've actually achieved five years of performances is four years." "Now that's talent." "We pack an extra punch."
"We believe that's a world record, and we're hoping to have our tenth anniversary by June, and then we will have closed the show and retired by the time the year 2001 rolls around." "No don't forget we're doing it is space." "Next year" "Yeah, you are."
"You're in charge of that." "But we can't believe that we are still here and we're still running and we just have to thank our audience for keeping us in this hell. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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