Reduced Shakespeare Company Comes to Oberlin

The Reduced Shakespeare Company is a three-man comedy troupe that takes long, serious subjects and reduces them to short, sharp comedies.

The Complete History of America (abridged): Election Edition is a 90-minute rollercoaster ride through the glorious quagmire that is American history, reminding us that it’s not the length of your history that matters—it what you’ve done with it. The performance will be 8 p.m. Thursday, September 6, in Finney Chapel. Tickets are $10 for general public and $6 for seniors and Oberlin College students, faculty, and staff.

Since its pass-the-hat origins in 1981, the “Bad Boys of Abridgment” have created 10 world-renowned stage shows, two television specials, several failed TV pilots, and numerous radio pieces, all of which have been seen, performed, and heard the world over. The company’s stops have included the White House, off-Broadway, the Kennedy Center, Lincoln Center, London’s West End, Seattle Repertory Theatre, American Repertory Theatre, and Montreal’s famed Just For Laughs Festival. They’ve also given performances in Israel, Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Japan, Malta, Singapore and Bermuda, plus countless civic and university venues throughout the United States, the UK, and Europe.

The Washington Post says: “The Reduced Shakespeare Company cheerfully run riot over 500 years of our country’s history … they mine dozens of landmark events and trends for comic gold. The trio’s nimble tongues, rubber-limbed pratfalls, and obvious street-performer smarts make this a merry, nose-tweaking outing.”