The Bible: The Complete Word of God (Abridged)

By Adam Long, Reed Martin, and Austin Tichnor

with additional material by Matthew Croke

Directed by Ronald Keaton

Produced by Ouroborose Theatre Company

At Boho Theatre@ Heartland Studio

“Our humor runs the gamut from smart to silly, verbal to physical, high to low. It plays all over the world, thus proving that there’s really no accounting for taste” barks Austin Techenor

Energetic cast tries hard to garner laughs

Filled with many local Chicago references and adlibs, the cast of The Bible worked hard to land laughs in this vaudeville styled spoof of God’s word. I didn’t think the material and the performances by the original authors was very funny, so Ron Keaton’s cast had little chance to make me laugh. It is hard for me to laugh at such silly material done with a cornball style. At the performance I attended, the audience found the material quite funny–I did not.

The slapstick, physical routines together with the word play and cast interaction was deftly performed by Michael Herschberg, Lindsey E. Pearlman and Chase McCurdy. McCurdy needs to tone down his shouting so as to not scorch our ears.

This show is an “irreverent rollar coaster ride” that playfully depicts the bible. I think younger audiences who like improv and annoyance theatre shows will enjoy this romp. The cast manically works the material and the audience to get everyone to have a good time. This  is a nice date show. The cast is getting valuable experience trying to make tough material funny. They basically succeed. You’ll probably like this show more than a “seen too many shows” reviewer like me did.

Recommended

Tom Williams

Jeff Recommended

At Bojo@Heartland Studio, 7016 N. Glenwood, Chicago, IL, Call 866-811-4111, tickets $20, Fridays & Saturdays at 8pm, Saturdays & Sundays at 2 pm, running time is 1 hour, 50 minutes with intermission, through June 8, 2009