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The Reduced Shakespeare Company is rewriting history. It's funnier, smarter and more entertaining. It also takes only 90 minutes to tell.

The company, which formed in 1981, aims to transform serious topics into abridged, witty versions of themselves. The comedy troupe has members in the U.S. and Great Britain, though only three men perform a show at a time.

As part of its tour, the troupe is stopping at the Lansburgh Theatre in Washington to perform two works: The Bible: The Complete Word of God (Abridged) and The Complete History of America (Abridged).

"[The Company] takes large foreign topics and reduces them to short silly ones," said Austin Tichenor, a performer and co-writer for the troupe. "We take anything that is far too large and far too serious and present them in an evening."

The company has also created abridged versions of the complete works of William Shakespeare, the history of Hollywood and a musical about the history of Western civilization. Besides performing in Washington, other members of the company are also currently on tour in San Jose, Calif., and Holland.

The Complete History of America is a perfect fit because of its ties to the Washington area, said Tichenor, who helped to write both the American history and Bible shows.

"You come to Washington, and you're surrounded by ... historic monuments and museums," Tichenor said. "I think you kind of want to celebrate it to kind of see something fun about American history."

In addition to its rich history, Washington was home to the first performance of The Bible, which premiered at the Kennedy Center in 1996 and was nominated for a Helen Hayes award the same year. According to Tichenor, The Bible has not been back at Washington since its run at the Kennedy Center.

"We've been wanting to bring back the Bible show for a very long time," he said. "This seems like a perfect opportunity to bring back."

Though there is a considerable amount of humor interlaced within both shows, Tichenor stressed that the comedy used is smart - and tasteful.

"I think everyone's a little weary of the Bible show [because of all the religious tension]," he said. "We don't really make fun of anything we talk about. We reference and celebrate."

What could potentially be a blasphemous show about Christianity is actually a "reverent celebration of the stories in the Bible" and not specifically focusing on the religion, he added.

The uniqueness of the troupe's work is its ability to use three men interchangeably in a smartly written adaptation of stories that everyone is familiar about. What can result is a thoroughly entertaining piece that is long enough to be memorable but short enough to be enjoyable.

The wide variety of humor that is woven into the writing doesn't hurt either.

"The humor really runs the gamut," Tichenor said. "It goes from smart to silly … to physical comedy to verbal comedy to finely crafted sight gags."

Its appeal lies in the fact that anyone familiar with both topics can easily relate to the stories being told.

For college students, both The Complete History of America and The Bible are neatly packaged history lessons, an entire semester packed into 90-minute slices of education and entertainment.

"We're providing a basic service to students all over," Tischenor said with a laugh.

Both shows will run at the Shakespeare Theatre Company's Lansburgh Theatre until April 13. Tickets cost $40-53.

dnhan@umd.edu

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