Theatre News

Reduced Complete World of Sports Tours UK, Plays Arts for Olympics

| London | London's West End | Off-West End |

9 January 2012

Three-man comedy troupe the Reduced Shakespeare Company will return to the UK this summer, bringing The Complete World of Sports (abridged) to the Arts Theatre for a six-week season from 18 July (previews from 17 July) to 25 August 2012 to coincide with the London Olympics.

The final date of a UK tour, the production sees the other RSC return to London where their The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged) played a nine-year at the Criterion Theatre from 1996 to 2005, becoming one of the West End’s longest running comedies.

Billed as including “every sport ever played on every continent in the entire history of the world in under two hours!” The Complete World of Sports (abridged) will tour the UK from the York Theatre Royal on 13 June 2012.

The show will then visit Exeter, Newbury, Nottingham, Truro, Poole, Tunbridge Wells, Canterbury, Leamington Spa, Derby, Hereford, Rhyl, Bernsley, Salford, Litchfield, Basingstoke, Crawley and Bedford, before playing Tewkesbury on 14 July and transferring to the Arts Theatre.

The Complete World of Sports (abridged) seeks to answer many questions: Is darts really a sport? What does NASCAR stand for? Why do Americans insist on calling a contest in which only they compete the “World Series”? Which is more boring – baseball or cricket? Who invented wife-carrying, bog-snorkelling and cheese-rolling? And why aren’t they in the Olympics?

Whether it’s the ancient cavemen or the classical Greeks, the Romans, the Elizabethans or the modern sports media, The Complete World of Sports (abridged) promises to “bring you all the emotion, the drama and the random drug testing of sports.”

Since 1981, the Reduced Shakespeare Company have created eight stage shows, two television specials, several failed TV pilots and numerous radio pieces – all of which have been performed, seen, heard and translated into Klingon the world over. Their other “reductions” include The Complete History of America (abridged) and The Bible: The Complete Word of God (abridged)

The Complete World of Sports (abridged) is written by Reduced Shakespeare Company managing partners Austin Tichenor and Reed Martin. It is produced by Newbury Productions (UK) Limited in association with York Theatre Royal.