Shakespeare in the Theatre: Reduced Shakespeare Company

The first dedicated historical study of the Reduced Shakespeare Company, this book explores the troupe's four major Shakespearean works over the past four decades.

The Reduced Shakespeare Company represent an American tale of how a small-scale, open-air troupe have, since their formation in 1981, gradually expanded into a global theatre brand. Specialising in fast-paced, irreverent reductions of prominent topics, their first play, The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged), has been translated into thirty-eight languages, and ran continuously for nine years in London's West End.

Each chapter of this book addresses a specific period in the company's history during which their focus was on Shakespearean adaptation. It begins with their origin story up to and beyond 1987's Complete Works, before exploring their audio work in The Reduced Shakespeare Company Radio Show (1994) and the Reduced Shakespeare Company Podcast (2006-present). The book then addresses the RSC's Shakespearean renaissance of the 2010s and later, in William Shakespeare's Long Lost First Play (abridged) (2018) and The Comedy of Hamlet! (a prequel) (2023). It concludes with an Epilogue that considers their influence and legacy, presents a blueprint for reduction and contextualises the company within the ecosystem of contemporary performance.

Drawing on previously unexamined archival material, author interviews with the company's five key players and attendance at rehearsals and performances in America and Britain, this book presents the inaugural critical analysis of the RSC's blend of audience interaction, metatheatre, parody, pop culture references, Shakespearean intertextuality and vaudevillian humour.