Reduced Shakespeare: The Complete Guide for the Attention-Impaired (Abridged)

This book has earned a place on my reference shelf, right next to the collected works of Shakespeare. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book, and was pleasantly surprised at how much information was provided. I know I'll turn to this book in the future for Shakespeare facts, quick reviews of his works, and as a movie reference as well!

This RSC (not to be confused with a certain other RSC) has gotten rave reviews for taking the mickey out of Shakespeare on stage. Here, they do the same in print. Not to say that they don't have some good points to make: One of their very first is to state that all Shakespeare biographies should be displayed in the Fiction section of bookstores and libraries because there's so little actual information to go on. They also claim that Shakespeare's chief accomplishment was to have been born in 1564, into a hotbed of political intrigue, where "unlike today, people of different religions had no tolerance for each other.... Fortunately, now, these myopic religious views and extremist sectarianism have completely disappeared." (There are numerous side comments along the same lines in the remainder of the book), and at a time when the theater was flourishing. They start off with a brief, airy, tongue-in-cheek biography and concluding with four pages that sum up everything we know about Shakespeare's life. Sidebars include "The Olden Globe Awards" (Best Racist Stereotype: Shylock; Best Stage Direction: "Exit, pursued by a bear") and Shakespeare's Favorite Sports (The Iambic Pentathlon, Pin the Blame on the Plantagenets). (The sidebars probably sum up the overall tone better than anything from the text.) Next they go to the plays, dividing them into the traditional three categories of Tragedies, Histories, and Comedies, then raising a stink over both this classification (trying to find a difference between the tragedies and histories and failing: "No, wait. The History plays are just as historically inaccurate as the tragedies.") and alternate classifications ("Let's get something straight. Shakespeare wrote nineteen comedies. Not thirteen Comedies, plus six Romances. Not ten Comedies, plus six Romances, plus Six Problem Plays. It's nineteen Comedies. Nineteen. Count 'em.") After listing them categorically, chronologically, and alphabetically, they provide a capsule description of each one. This includes the setting, the source, what the play is best known for, the major characters, the plot, a one-sentence plot encapsulation, the moral, a famous quote, the best feature, the worst feature, the rating (scored in bards and illustrated by the number of Shakespeare heads), and an interesting fact. It's not too surprising that when there's no interesting fact to be found, they either come up with something irrelevant or something totally imaginary. Oh, and after each one there is an "Essay Question," usually on the order of "In this comedy, Oliver asks a wrestler to break his brother's neck. Explain why this is funny." They show no mercy, ruthlessly excoriating the bad plays (of which there are plenty), but rightly praising the best ones. Following that, there's a brief section on Shakespeare's poetry, which is possibly the weakest section of the book, particularly the parody sonnets, which aren't funny at all. But then we get to "Who Wrote This Stuff?

I wish this book had been around when I was in high school; I really wish it had been around (in both the English and Drama departments) when I was in college. This isn't just a laugh-out-loud introduction to Shakespeare, but a rollicking guide to all things Shakespearian. Too often, students are thrown headlong into Shakespeare's plays, and then into Northrop Frye & Co., after which they never approach Shakespeare (or any drama) ever again. Reed Martin and Austin Tichenor, showing the reverence we've come to expect from the Reduced Shakespeare Co.'s treatments of Shakespeare and the Bible, expose the Bard's clay feet (and kinky underwear) while providing a very thorough overview of all the Bard's plays and poetry, along with the movies and tv productions that have followed, and if that weren't enough, a glance at some noteworthy (and otherwise) Shakespearian scholarship. What's not to like? Some of the anachronistic parallels to Marilyn Monroe and Elvis are played beyond their worth (but so was Falstaff), and the gag essay questions are too abundant to keep their punch. But why quibble? This book casts aside dogma that has sired too many pups onstage and in classrooms and presents the great playwright with the bawdy laughter he is too often denied. And that can only make people more interested in Shakespeare and his literature, and that's a good thing.

A laugh out loud Shakespeare book, who'd have thunk it? A book on Shakespeare that doesn't take itself seriously, yet is full of information and fun to read. I've read several books on the Shakespeare authorship question, and amazingly, this little book manages to do a good job summarizing the pros and con (with odds too) of all the candidates in one 14 page chapter titled, "Who wrote this stuff?". This book is full of goodies: each play has its setting, source, characters, plot summary and rating (1 to 5 'bards'), plus chronologies, chapters on Shakespeare movies, Shakespeare acting, poetry (includes the nine best sonnets and a few newly discovered sonnets too!), biographies, first folio, and lot's more. It's written by people who know their Shakespeare, seasoned with wit, informed judgment, candor, and all done with good fun. Highly recommended.

I've been a fan of the Reduced Shakespeare Company ever since I performed in their first play during my college days. I've followed their work since then, and I've enjoyed most of it, disappointed by a little. This book is somewhere in between. Reed Martin and Austin Tichenor (who, ironically, weren't among the originators of the Shakespeare play) are quite successful at giving a lighthearted and very funny retelling of Shakespeare's life, dissection of his plays and poems, and examination of the movies that have been produced based on his work. They give their own theories about who really wrote Shakespeare's plays (their theory involves a flux capacitor) and even the bibliography at the end is full of jokes. The biggest problem is their insistence on topical humor. It's one thing to do it on stage, where you can adapt the show as the times change. In a book like this, though, constant jabs at pop culture and current politics get a little tedious and will serve to date this book very badly in a few years. It's a fun book, worth reading for fans of the company, but read it now. Before it's too late.