I am still in pain as I write this. The Reduced Shakespeare Company's performance last night of "The Bible: The Complete Word of God (abridged)" was humor at its finest, deftly combining physical with more traditional comedy.
I literally threw my back out laughing along with the rest of the audience.
This is the same group who wrote the amazingly funny "The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged)."
The name, though, is a leftover from the group's origins at Renaissance Fairs where they performed during the early 1980's. Two of the three members were also clowns with Barnum and Bailey Circus.
Circus experience pays off for the troupe as they engage in tumbling and juggling routines all cleverly worked into the production.
A section on Jesus' "miracles" is a segue into a circus magic act.
The confusion over the people in the Bible with similar names becomes a hilarious song.
All of this action takes place on a minimalist stage, with Michelangelo's painting of The Creation of Adam from the Sistine Chapel in the background.
The costumes are simple, with the props ranging from a Mr. Potato Head toy to a box of Goldfish snacks that are thrown at the crowd to represent Jesus feeding the multitudes.
Act One covered the Old Testament, leaving the New Testament for Act Two.
The best part of the show was not the script, however, but the improvisation, such as the traditional teasing of the latecomers.
In many shows, latecomers must wait until a scene change or the second act to take their seats so as not to interrupt the performance. Coming late to a Reduced Shakespeare Company production results in ridicule.
The house manager lets people take their seats about 10 minutes into the show, and the troupe cajoles them the whole way down the aisle.
To many in the audience who have not seen something like this before, it is intensely hilarious. Even if you know it is coming it is different and funny every time.
Talented in many respects, the troupe also performs musical numbers. Music helps the group condense hundreds of pages of the Bible down into a few minutes of song.
The highlight of this show was "Old McNoah's Arc" sung to the tune of "Old McDonald's Farm."
For this number many of the audience members were brought onto the stage to provide the animal noises. All persons involved delivered enthusiastic performances, but none could match the energy of the players.
For more than two hours they ran, sang and jumped, playing every part in the Bible.
Of course, this was a less physically demanding production than the three-hour "Complete Works of Shakespeare (abridged)." That piece reaches its apex when all of the Bard's Histories are condensed into a game of football.
The goal of the game is to hold onto the crown. The five minutes of chaos that ensues leaves one aching from laughter.
The high-energy point in "The Bible (abridged)" is the Last Supper. A sheet painted with a table and headless torsos is unfurled, and two of the members run back and forth playing each of the 12 apostles.
Parts of the production were vulgar, but they were always done in a fairly decent manner.
Every once in a while sexual innuendo has its place. A Reduced Shakespeare performance is one of those.
The pieces were always in context and usually funny. It would be a much less successful show if these three tried to restrain the juvenile aspects of their humor.
The Reverend Gwendolyn King, the College's Christian chaplain, was present at the performance and appeared both impressed and amused.
King said of the show, "If they are trying to get people to think, they have succeeded in doing so."
She also mentioned that the performance required a good deal of knowledge of the subject matter by the audience so they may appreciate the whole effect.
And appreciate they did, with a few members of the audience standing during the curtain call and hollering.
This sort of show encourages participation -- some people even made humorous remarks at certain points in the show.
Much of the humor was topical as well, including many remarks about the Presidential elections and the O.J. Simpson double-murder trial.
Some parts of the play are done out of character. A particular funny sketch involved one of the actors asking the other if he believed God has a sense of humor.
"Yes," he replied, "After all, he led the Children of Israel through the desert for 40 years and then gave them the one place in the Middle East that doesn't have a drop of oil."
The show closed with a song to cover the Book of Revelations, performed in top hats and tails.
It is interesting to watch someone make satire out of the predictions of the fiery end of the world. But these guys don't make their living by being predictable.
