Smothers Theatre was packed Feb. 2, with Malibu locals to see the Reduced Shakespeare Company’s “The Complete History of Comedy ‘Abridged‘” show. The show was presented by the Lisa Smith Wengler Center for the Arts and was sponsored by Mary and Tom Hawkins.
Laughter consumed the auditorium sporadically throughout the night as audience members watched slapstick-style humor involving well-known historical figures. The play was written and directed by Reed Martin and Austin Tichenor, who were two of the main actors alongside Dominic Conti.
Sophomore Rini Pattison works as an usher at Smothers Theatre. She said she thought the play was going to be tacky, but instead, she found it really funny.
“They did comedy in a really funny way,” Pattison said.
The show left no stone unturned. The comedy covered everything from a caveman giving birth to standup comedy from Abraham Lincoln and muppets acting out the Supreme Court.
Besides incorporating plenty of slapstick, Martin and Tichenor embraced satire, parodies and wordplay in their humorous presentation. Pattison said she could hear people roaring with laughter from the lobby.
The Reduced Shakespeare Company (RSC) originated in 1981 and has since written and produced ten world-renowned stage shows, according to the Center for the Arts. The RSC had two television specials and continues to host a weekly podcast.
Three of the RSC’s shows ran for nine years at the Criterion Theatre in Piccadilly Circus and are known as London’s longest-running comedies, according to the Center for the Arts.
The group has traveled extensively across the United States and has performed at the White House, the Kennedy Center and the Lincoln Center, among many other venues. They have also traveled internationally to Australia, Hong Kong and Singapore, according to the Center for the Arts.
Martin, Tichenor and Conti kept the audience on their toes all through the night, as they brought pies out and promised someone would be pied before the end of the show.
The RSC came with many humorous tricks rolled up their sleeves. Audience members participated in an impromptu exercise in which they made sounds effects for the actors’ actions.
Martin, Tichenor and Conti finished the show by pieing only themselves in the face.
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Contact Rachel Flynn via email: rachel.flynn@pepperdine.edu
