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Friday November 2, 2007

Here come the words of God — well, most of them

by joe eskenazi
staff writer

Mr. Oliver Cavendish of Leicester [claimed] to be able to recite the entire Bible in one second, whilst being struck on the head with a large axe. Ha, ha, wow. We’ve since discovered that he was a fraud, yes, a fraud — he did not in fact recite the entire Bible, he merely recited the first two words “In the … ” before his death.

—“Monty Python’s Flying Circus,” Interesting People sketch

No, you don’t need to pack a large axe —and you’ll have to spot them an extra 89 minutes and 59 seconds. But, given those minimal provisions, the Reduced Shakespeare Company will be able to theatrically reproduce the complete and unabridged Hebrew and Christian bibles in their entirety.

Well, almost.

“The Bible: The Complete Word of God (Abridged)” could be considered something of a staged Cliffs Notes version of the Bible — that is, if the Torah and Christian Bible contained copious references to game shows, 1960s TV and, of course, Wrestlemania.

“There’s an argument about how everything is preordained. God controls everything, and it’s all predetermined — just like professional wrestling,” said Reed Martin, one of the two principles of the Reduced Shakespeare Company.

“Then we go into a wrestling match between Jacob and the angel of the Lord.”

Martin, a native of Sonoma (where he still lives), met fellow thespian Austin Tichenor at U.C. Berkeley in the mid-1980s. They formed the second-most famous theatrical troupe with the initials “RSC” in the late 1980s. They were a Renaissance Faire staple before appearing at venues such as the Kennedy Center and across Europe and even in Israel.

Their biblical play comes to San Francisco’s Marines Memorial Theater on Nov. 6 for a two-month run.

The genesis of “The Bible” — pun intended — traces back to Israel, where the troupe was playing

the Jerusalem Festival

in the early 1990s (Tichenor, who grew up in Piedmont, still remembers how to say “To be or not

to be” in Hebrew, a guaranteed laugh line in Israel). The duo was ap- proached by an Israeli TV station about creating a half-hour version of the Torah.

“Like most TV deals, it fell through,” said Tichenor. But it did lead to another “reduced” play to go along with comedic romps through the works of the Bard, Western Civilization, American History, Hollywood and All the Great Books.

In their decade and change of taking “The Bible” on the road, Tichenor and Martin — both non-Jews — don’t recall any unpleasant reactions from Jewish crowds. On a recent trip through Great Britain and Ireland, however, religious Christians attempted to have them prosecuted for blasphemy (still illegal in those parts). The Irish Supreme Court even attended a showing in Dublin. Their official ruling: not blasphemous.

“They said it was ‘juvenile,’ along the lines of ‘Monty Python and ‘The Life of Brian.’ We said ‘Thank you very much!’ That’s high praise,” Martin said.

And while the play manages to squeeze in the Torah before the intermission and do the Christian Bible in the second half, both performers say there is no need for Jews to leave before the show is done.

Because if you do, you’ll miss the big musical finale: “That’s Armageddon!”

“The Bible: The Complete Word of God (Abridged)” plays from Nov. 6 to Jan. 6 at the Marines Memorial Theater, 609 Sutter St., S.F. Tickets: Call (415) 771-6900 or visit www.reducedshakespeare.com

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