h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I've got a 90 minute video of The Reduced Shakespeare Company's "The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged)" that has some really funny bits. My favorite is the finale, "Hamlet" done in about a minute, backwards. I've also seen it done by some local highschool kids, it was great.

Get thee to the Criterion Theatre in Olde London Town and see them do it for real. (I did and it was GREAT! )

Hmmm, about a nine hour flight plus a train ride, then the same back home. Yup, that sounds worth it ... right after the war's over.

I have that video too! I just watched it last night. No one I know has heard of it (then again, I live in a tiny Kentucky town, the opposite of Shakespeare. probably even the opposite of humor). Adam Long is the funniest, in my opinion. Funniest? Most funny?

The best thing about the stage show is the audience participation - apparently my girlfriend got picked to back and forth across the stage (I forget why ). For some reason, they also refused to call her anything but "Bob" [I think that's right]

It also provided me with my favourite out-of-context Shakespeare quote: "Get thee to a nunnery!" as shouted by half the audience of a theatre - now that's what I call good casting

Apparently, they also do a rather good "Complete History of America (abridged)", and I think a Bible one of some sort too...

From memory, the RSC divide the audience into thirds so that we can workshop a psychoanalysis of Hamlet: once group shouts "get thee to a nunnery", the second (in a very high pitched voice) "maybe, maybe not" while waving their hands in the air. The last group must call out (in time to the other two) Ophelia's response "Cut the crap, my biological clock is ticking and I wanna baby now!" There are audience members up the front doing the appropriate actions as well as the RSC frantically trying to organise things.

I was in the third group and had trouble stopping laughing long enough to get this all said in time. I was also very young and didn't know if I should be saying this sort of language in a large tent during an arts festival.

I don't want to give much away for those who haven't seen it, but for the friends watching at my house, the bit where "Ophelia" sprays water from her mouth is generally where they lose it completely.

Oh, yeah, that's hilarious. Besides Hamlet, I also like Othello as a rap, and Titus Andronicus as a cooking show. And they're completely right about the comedies; Shakespeare picked a plot device that worked, and used it 16 times.

I saw the RSC doing their thing at the English theatre in Frankfurt. They did some Hitler and Invasion of Poland jokes that left us Brits bating our breaths like crazy, and the rest of the audience screaming with laughter. For truly audacious and innovative comedy, they can't be beaten

Yup, I agree with RSC that the tragedies are a lot funnier. Did they do a spoof of Richard III? I can't recall ... and I can never decide if its a tragedy or a comedy. The way Ian MacKellan did it as a Nazi era story seemed pretty funny to me. Asides to the audience like "Do I have a heart of stone?" (having killed virtually everybody of any importance), plus the final scene where he smiles as he falls to his death. The villain you love to hate, like Alan Rickman in "Die Hard" ... "You're a common thief." "I am an EXCEPTIONAL thief!"

Even though I've only seen them on the telly, they have been a great inspiration. i'm a Drama teacher and I gave the reduced shakespeare treatment to the story of the nativity. It was all performed by some very enthusiastic 11 and 12 year olds, and shown to the local old people. They loved it, and the kids REALLY took to the idea. I have never laughed so much while directing something. Brilliant.

The production of "The Complete Works ..." I mentioned earlier by highschool kids (here in Houston, Texas, USA) was introduced by their director, probably the drama teacher at the school. He was pretty low key, he said he thought we (a $5 paying crowd of maybe a hundred people) would enjoy it. Did we ever ... three young men about 17 years old +/- gave a performance close to the real RSC. It was near the end of a week or two run at an old movie house that has been renovated by a small town theater group (a distant suburb of Houston). So the kids had their roles down pretty well. As with the RSC, it starts a little slow, but with the Othello rap, the audience participation, and the multiple versions of Hamlet, the kids really hit their stride. The audience was rolling in the aisles.

that sounds excellent Steve,
I'd like to do it at my school, I'd have to get hold of them on video though. With kids these days having the attention span of an MTV video, it's and excellent way to get them involved - quick, fast and funny!