Much Ado about Reduxion

Live music prelude to Much Ado at Reduxion

I cried and I laughed.

That's been the effect of Reduxion Theatre Company http://reduxiontheatre.com/ and the two performances of Shakespeare I've seen there.

In the fall, we went to see "Hamlet," put on with just seven actors in various roles at the little theater in the round on North Broadway in OKC.

You're sitting right at the edge of the stage, close enough to be touched by the actors. The closing of that play did bring tears. Friday, we went to see "Much Ado About Nothing." Eight players switching roles and costumes, bringing the Bard's genius and wordplay to life again, this time with laughter and live music.

Cover of the Playbill

More interaction with the audience this time brought my stage debut.

The cop Antonio reaches for me, asks me something, (You have to listen very closely to Shakespeare's words) intending to bring a person up on stage for questioning as potential thief in an investigation. Of the top of my head, trying to fit the Italian setting, I reply, "Si."

Up I go into the middle of the stage, and he says to me, laughing, "You're the first person who ever answered "Si." After I'm prodded and probed by the cops, I'm sat back down.

Later he's walking by in a soliloquy, and asks a rhetorical question of himself, two feet from me. I reply "Si." It cracks him up and it gets a laugh from the crowd. After the play, one audience member asked if I was a plant.

Nope. But next year... the Golden Globes or Oscars for me.

Much Ado about Nothing, for my adventure.

But Reduxion Theatre should be on your list of experiences in a revitalized OKC and energized creative landscape.

Check the website for lots more information. Next season, they're putting on Shakespeare twice, "Richard III" Nov. 1-17, and "Love's Labour's Lost," Feb 7-23. "Also Night of the Grand Guignol" Sept. 20-29, and "Tom Jones," May 9-25.

In addition, "Sense and Sensibility" May 10-26 this spring, and the Jane Austen Festival June 12-16.

 The actors will stun you as they move from one role and costume, and sometimes gender, in an evening. Theater the way the Bard envisioned it and experienced it.

Reduxion deserves Much Ado about it.

Here's music from the prelude. This was so much fun.