The Complete World of Sports
Reduced Shakespeare Company
The Complete World of Sports
The entire history of athletic competition is revisited in a marathon of madness and mayhem that sees the world's great sporting events shrunk down to theatrical size ... Among the many questions answered: 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?
2.4 out of 5 based on 6 reviews
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Omniscore:
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| Location |
London |
| Venue |
Arts Theatre |
| Director |
Austin Tichenor Reed Martin |
| Cast |
Austin Tichenor, Matt Rippy, Reed Martin |
| From |
July 2012 |
| Until |
August 2012 |
| Box Office |
020 7836 8463 |
| |
The entire history of athletic competition is revisited in a marathon of madness and mayhem that sees the world's great sporting events shrunk down to theatrical size ... Among the many questions answered: 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?
Reviews
The Independent on Sunday
Claudia Pritchard
“The noble values of sport would, of course, never be compromised by financial incentive, but at the Arts Theatre the Reduced Shakespeare Company finds daftness aplenty in its breakneck history of biffing, sliding, and going round in circles.”
22/07/2012
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The Times
Libby Purves
“They build it round a fictional US sports network whose rhetoric is only just recognisable here; many sporting references are bafflingly Little Leaguish, and their comedy Scotsmen are the sort you can only laugh at if you’ve never left Columbus, Ohio. It also takes far too long to get round to the Olympic jokes. Which are, as the daily news makes clear, ripe for the picking ... But there were high spots, moments when you could see that this team — Reed Martin, Matt Rippy and Tichenor — have more talent than they seem willing to spend on this show. ”
20/07/2012
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The Stage
Michael Coveney
“For a performance that alludes to American media breakfast time coverage but doesn’t relate to the huge NBC influx of Olympics personnel at the games, or to the catastrophe of the security arrangements in the athletes’ village, you wonder why the actors are still referencing Star Wars or running with bulls at Pamplona.”
19/07/2012
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The Daily Telegraph
Dominic Cavendish
“There’s no thesis on offer here, though – just lots of throwaway factoids and quips, delivered in a brash, sporting-channel commentary style. You want stadium-sized corniness? They got it: “What do Australians wear in the winter to keep warm? Down Undies.” Dreaded audience participation? That too. A jokey spin on national anthems? Yes again. The whole thing feels breathless, mindless and not far short of utterly pointless.”
23/07/2012
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Time Out
Patrick Marmion
“You've got to hand it to these three old boys, though: they know how to work a crowd. Genuine affection does build between stage and audience - but you've just got to pray they don't take their Scottish accents, heard in a feeble golf sketch, anywhere north of Berwick-upon-Tweed.”
23/07/2012
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The Evening Standard
Fiona Mountford
“The relentless wisecrackery, however, proves exhausting, and it doesn’t help that they constantly berate us for not appreciating their jokes sufficiently. ”
23/07/2012
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