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In Tandem Theatre opens its 20th season with Reed Martin and Austin Tichenor’s All The Great Books (Abridged), an offering from the world-renowned Reduced Shakespeare Company designed to delight audiences of many ages and interests. The premise? A remedial English Lit class has failed their mid-terms. (Guess what, audience: That’s you!) With graduation less than two hours away, the school’s coach, drama teacher and student teacher are compelled to convey no less than 89 of the world’s greatest literary works in just 90 minutes. “To do so,” shares director Chris Flieller, “they employ the drama teacher’s extensive collection of props and costumes, as well as clever contractions of some fairly lofty material. For instance, all of Charles Dickens’ works are distilled into a three-minute soap opera, and Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey are condensed into a 10-minute opus called The Idioddity.”
Other works on the roster include Leo Tolstoy’s War and Peace, George Eliot’s Middlemarch, Miguel de Cervantes’ Don Quixote and Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn. Despite the cerebral subject matter, Flieller assures that “this show is fast-paced and funny, but also easy to follow; you don’t need to be a literary scholar to like this show.”
Indeed, the very nature of Reduced Shakespeare Company works is zany, Marx Brothers-esque and grounded in physical comedy. Since debuting in 1981, their work has entertained audiences ranging from street corner passersby and Edinburgh Festival Fringe-goers to patrons paying premium for seats at London’s West End and New York’s Off-Broadway theaters. All The Great Books (Abridged) premiered in 2002 and is the company’s fifth stage show. It follows such other screwball summations as The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged) and The Bible: The Complete Word of God (abridged), the latter two holding the distinction of being London’s longest-running comedies.
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In Tandem’s Production
Of the particular strength of All The Great Books, Flieller notes, “Part of what makes this my favorite of all the Reduced Shakespeare shows is the context; the setup about impending graduation gives the proceedings much more urgency and dramatic tension … The other thing is that the characters in this show are well defined and very different from each other. Each have their prejudices about the others, but by the end of class, they each grow in their appreciation of the others. So not only is it hilarious, at its core it is an affirmation of the idea that, as we work together and get to know each other, we find that we have more in common than we first thought. It seems to be a lesson that bears constant repeating.”
Playing the three roles is a trio of premier Milwaukee actors: Ryan Schabach as the drama professor, Chris Goode as the student teacher and Doug Jarecki as the coach. Jarecki has played his role before and has been seen on In Tandem’s stage several times in the past, most recently as Dracula in last fall’s Dracula Versus the Nazis. Schabach returns to the company after a seven-year hiatus, having last been seen in the 2010 production of Romantic Fools. Goode, the newcomer in the group, is frequently seen on Milwaukee’s stages and has worked with Flieller in the past in the context of the World’s Stage Theatre. The design team also features familiar faces, including Kathy Smith, who designed costumes for the original production. Set Designer Rick Graham has likewise worked with In Tandem in the past; he designed the company’s lush 2014 production of The Glass Menagerie. Designing lighting is Pat Smith—new to the company but experienced in the Manitowoc and Fox Valley theater circuit.
Asked how this show fits into larger themes for the season, Flieller states, “Our watchword is always diversity when choosing the content and tone of our programming, and ATGB has always been one of our favorites, so it seemed natural to reprise it for our 20th anniversary season. But, as we went forward choosing the rest of the season, a pattern started to emerge that really fit with who we are and how we do things. The guys in ATGB are thrown together by circumstance … to perform a seemingly insurmountable task, and they rise to the occasion.
“The performers in Scrooge in Rouge are faced with their own dilemma, and the audience has a great time watching them soldier on and figure it out. The Fantasticks is all about a group of actors who use the simplest of scenic elements to create a magical story from next to nothing. Even our drama, The Outgoing Tide, deals with a small, close-knit family faced with a difficult situation and trying to make the best of it. That’s what we are all about here: working hard and joyously to give our community the absolute best theater experience that is also accessible and affordable—doing the most with the least and making it beautiful.”
All The Great Books (Abridged) runs Oct. 5-29 at In Tandem’s Tenth Street Theatre, 628 N. 10th St. For tickets, call 414-271-1371 or visit intandemtheatre.org.
