It is almost too late to catch the last performance of the Reduced Shakespeare Company’s “All the Great Books (abridged)” at the San Jose Rep. The play has only two more performances as of this writing. If you have a love of or even a grudging respect for great literature and physical comedy then you should run right out and catch this performance.
The premise of this play is that you the audience member are a high school student who needs to pass a remedial class in English Literature before you can graduate at the ceremony which will be held in 1 hour and 45 minutes. Since the regular English teacher was killed in a tragic incident at a Harry Potter book signing the coach, drama professor and young (and not so bright) substitute teacher must take charge of this class.
I saw this performance on Thursday evening and the audience for the most part had never heard of the RSC but almost immediately took to their comic stylings.
SPOILER:
As a fan of the RSC podcast I knew that in the first act one of the actors seems to break character. Even as someone who was in on that little secret it was hard for me to believe that the moment was not real. The actor even seem to flush with embarrassment. My daughter and wife who saw an earlier performance were completely taken in as I think was most of the audience. What a strange group of gentlemen that write plays that setup this kind of comedy. It was though, to their credit, one of the funniest moments of the show.
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