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Complete History of America @ CATCO
June 1 - July 8, 2007
Since I first found out about The Complete Works of Shakespeare (Abridged) when I saw an ad for OSU's production of it several years ago I've been wanting to see more of the Reduced Shakespeare Company's work. I loved the production of The Complete Works of Shakespeare (Abridged) as a part of Shakespeare in the Park last year, and while I think it's odd they're doing the same piece two years in a row, I definitely plan on checking it out again this year.
So, needless to say I was thrilled to find out CATCO was doing Complete History of America (Abridged). Apparently it's doing fairly well for them so far too, as they extended the run through July 8th.
I got half-price tickets for last night's show while at the Arts Festival yesterday, which was good, because the full price tickets ($40 ea.) strike me as very pricey for this type of production. If you're not working, or can get off work on short notice, they ARE doing a production this Wednesday at 11 AM for $11/ticket, which is an even better deal than I got...
Anyway, the show is in Studio 1 at the Riffe Center, which is a nice little venue, though smaller, and again, doesn't seem to meet the $40 price point very well.
It's a 3 actor show, and the three actors did a good job. Some parts were a bit overplayed, and there's one "rap" scene which was just painful - I'm sure it's supposed to be ridiculous, but it crossed over into just bad. I found it odd that only 1 of them is actually living in Columbus (one is from Indianapolis, the other Phoenix!!), but maybe I'm just not familiar enough with how CATCO works.
The work itself is in a VERY similar vein to the Shakespeare piece, though targeting American History instead. It runs through most all the "highlights" from Amerigo Vespucci to the end of the Cold War & fall of the Berlin Wall. There's a lot of the standard criticism of the USA in there, particularly regarding how the US considers itself more important than the rest of the world, and the love of the almighty dollar, but it's mixed within a humorous take on US history in general.
It's not as consistently funny as The Complete Works of Shakespeare (Abridged) - there are some slow parts and some over the top parts which just don't work well, but there's also a lot of good comedy in there.
If you enjoy comedy & live theater, I'd recommend checking it out (especially if you can get cheaper tix somehow), but if you're not sure then I'd say just pass and check out The Complete Works of Shakespeare (Abridged) when it plays in Schiller this Summer.
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