Reduced Shakespeare

by Reed Martin, Austin Tichenor

From the theatrical company responsible for the comedy drama The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged) comes an compact, informative overview of the life and work of the great dramatist, accompanied by entertaining trivia, lists, quizzes, definitions, and more. 40,000 first printing.

Paperback

First published June 1, 2007

About the author

Reed Martin co-created and performed in the original productions of The Bible: The Complete Word of God (abridged), The Complete History of America (abridged), Western Civilization: The Complete Musical (abridged), All The Great Books (abridged), and Completely Hollywood (abridged). He contributed additional material to The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged).

Martin is a managing partner of The Reduced Shakespeare Company and has performed at Lincoln Center Theater, London's West End, Kennedy Center, Seattle Repertory Theatre, American Repertory Theatre, Pittsburgh Public Theater, California Shakespeare Festival, McCarter Theatre, Long Wharf Theatre, Old Globe Theatre, La Jolla Playhouse, Alabama Shakespeare Festival, The White House and Madison Square Garden, as well as in 11 foreign countries. He toured for two years as a clown/assistant ringmaster with Ringling Brothers/Barnum & Bailey Circus. His voice was heard in the animated feature film Balto and just about every other part of him was seen in the British film Carry On Columbus.

Martin has written for the BBC, NPR, Britain's Channel Four, RTE Ireland, Public Radio International, The Washington Post and Vogue magazine. With Austin Tichenor he co-authored the book The Greatest Story Ever Sold, published by John Knox/Westminster Press. His work has been nominated for an Olivier Award in London and a Helen Hayes Award in Washington, D.C. He is a member of the Dramatists Guild and has a BA in Political Science/Theatre from UC Berkeley, an MFA in Acting from UC San Diego and is a graduate of Ringling Brothers/Barnum & Bailey Clown College. He is a former professional minor league baseball umpire. Martin lives in Northern California with his wife and sons.

IMDb Mini Biography By: Jenn

Reviews

[Erin · Rating 4 out of 5]

The full title for this book is actually Reduced Shakespeare: The Complete Guide for the Attention-Impaired [abridged:] . It's written by the same fellows who brought us the play The Complete Works of William Shakespeare [abridged:] , which you can get on DVD or in book format. (It's hilarious!)

Even the Table of Contents is funny in this book--the fact that it's annotated cracks me up. It should also be a clue that this is not the book to start someone out on if they are just being introduced to Shakespeare for the first time. Yes, it gives plenty of biographical information and plot summaries--even movie reviews--etc, but the humor is so irreverent that a newbie to the Bard might get confused in spots. (Actually, the tone is so irreverent that sometimes I questioned whether the authors even LIKED Shakespeare's works.)

There was one place I found, however, with some glaring errors, and that was on page 105 of the hardback edition. The plot synopsis of Titus Andronicus is incorrect. It's confusing and has the characters mixed up. A better summary can be found at SparkNotes. Otherwise, the book is a very entertaining read!

[Angela · Rating 4 out of 5]

I just had to get my hands on this after seeing these guys at the Folger. And it is hilarious! I was cracking up all the way through. My only complaint is that I wish they'd spent less time talking about movies based on Shakespeare and more on the plays themselves. Still, this is a great, funny introduction to Shakespeare for someone who doesn't know much about him, and lots of fun for the long-time Shakespeare fan.

[C.O. Bonham · Rating 5 out of 5]

A book that truly lives up to it's title.