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The Complete History of America (Abridged)

Marueen Hines and Ashley VanScoyoc in TCL's The Complete
History of America (Abridged)

From the writing team that brought The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged), the Theatre Company of Lafayette brings you The Complete History of America (Abridged). If you are familiar with the former, then you know what to expect. Fast paced humor, slapstick galore, and plenty of breaking-of-the-4^th-wall while condensing hundreds of years of history into a 2 hour play. TCL does not fail to meet those expectations, though a few more performances are sure to benefit the sometimes dragging play.

 

The show opens with the discovery of America and ends with a few weeks ago, throwing in some very smart jokes along the way. The three actors; Maureen Hines, Chelsea Rossetto, and Ashley VanScoyoc run franticly around the well-designed set donning different costumes, playing train whistles, singing horribly (on purpose I think), moving set pieces, and shooting the audience with water guns (be warned – they told us not to sit in the front row if we didn’t want to get wet. We sat in the 4^th row and got soaked.) The energy displayed by these actors was exceptional, as I could see just how hard they were working up there. The first act had its ups and downs with a few very funny bits, ending with the highlight of the show – the recreation of Lincoln’s Assassination and a very funny take on the conspiracy theorists that whisper quietly to each other all over the country.  By the 2^nd act, the actors got a bit tired and the jokes failed to land. The fast-paced-humor became faced-paced-garble making it very difficult to understand a lot of the dialogue. The Complete History of America (Abridged) is not without its flaws, but this is guerilla theatre – simply three actors working hard to tell a story.  The writing is smart and the jokes come frequently, I just hope the actors get the timing needed to pull them off. They were close – very close, but not quite there. Now, a few words of caution to anyone that goes to see this show. You will get wet. Pretty much anywhere in the house. Also, you will have to walk across a wet stage to exit the theatre, so please be very careful. The show runs through August 30^th at the Mary Miller Theatre in Lafayette, and once the trio has had a few performances they’ll find the timing needed to make this show what it can be.

 

For more info: The Complete Hisotry of America (Abridged) Runs August 14th- 16th, 21st - 23rd, and 28th - 30th at 7:30 PM, there is also a 2:30 show on August 24th.
Click here for tickets and directions to the theatre.