Review: Why read the 'Great Books' when you can laugh at them?

FORT MYERS — If you've only ever read a book, you'll laugh - even if that one book was Stephenie Meyer's "Twilight." If you've read more - Kafka, Twain, Whitman, Dickens - you'll roll in the aisles, gasp for breath and scream with delight as the library shelf gets the Marx brothers treatment in "All the Great Books (Abridged)," playing through March 27 at Theatre Conspiracy.

"All the Great Books" comes from a series of snarky parodies created by the Reduced Shakespeare Company; other targets include the Bard of Avon himself, the Bible, the history of America and Hollywood. Theatre Conspiracy produced "The Complete Word of God (Abridged)" and “The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged)” in previous seasons with the same cast.

Using a zesty blend of physical comedy, witty wordplay and enough toys to fill a giant's bedroom - Christopher Brent, Jordan Wilson and Jesse St. Louis (brilliant all and listed, as in the program, in order of height) celebrate 86 "Great Books" with childlike glee and more than one pail of water. As Brent says during the Moby Dick sketch as he douses an unsuspecting St. Louis "It adds a bit of realism." Full credit to stage manager Tiffany Allen for keeping pace with the rapid-fire costume changes, wigs, swords, sand pails, tricycles, stuffed animals, Captain Kirk dolls and everything else used in the show.

Director Rachael Endrizzi keeps the show rolling with all the zippy, zany speed of an old Benny Hill sketch. The setup - the actors are "tutoring" the audience in a remedial reading class - starts with a literal bang as a few dozen of the works get thrown in from offstage, where Wilson proceeds to sweep them up with a push broom. St. Louis punctuates the stunt by dropping a four-inch thick copy of impenetrable Tolstoy masterpiece "War and Peace" on the stage with a resounding thud; the novel figures heavily (pun intended) in an amusing Act II that dissects the Russians, makes them funny - and then everyone dies.

Charles Dickens sees his work turned in a serial, with the iconic opening line of "A Tale of Two Cities" re-imagined in melodramatic "sands through the hourglass" soap opera style. Louisa May Alcott's "Little Women" turns into a series of football plays on a chalkboard - and gains extra characters - Tamara, Venus, Serena and FloJo in the process! "Don Quixote" starts as a Spanish lesson and descends into a brawl. Homer's "The Illiad" and "The Odyssey" combine into one entertaining and far more comprehensible work "The Idiotity" - complete with the character of Paris as a French street mime.

The silliness continues all night - but doesn't mask what's a clear love for the written word from the creators. A segment on Mark Twain classic "Huckleberry Finn" takes aim at censorship and if the show has a message, it is read well, read often and when you do, read a good book.

If you like a good book, don't miss this show. If you're not laughing by the time the Trojan horse scene rolls around and the actors under the costume start a conga line, send search parties for your funny bone.

My favorite great book? "Animal Farm," although the show warns "Don't trust the pigs." E-mail me, csilk@naplesnews.com, find me on Twitter at @napleschris or read my Stage Door theater blog. You can also sign up to receive the Stage Door blog via email.

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