The Reduced Shakespeare Company

Ahead of the show's West End premiere, the entire history of athletic competition is revisited in a marathon of madness and mayhem that sees the world's great sporting events shrunk down to theatrical size.

Among the many questions answered: Is darts really a sport? What does NASCAR stand for? Why do Americans insist on calling a contest in which only they compete the 'World Series'? Which is more boring – baseball or cricket? Who invented wife-carrying, bog-snorkelling and cheese-rolling? And why aren't they in the Olympics?

Whether it's the ancient cavemen or the Classical Greeks, the Romans, the Elizabethans or the modern sports media, The Complete World of Sports (abridged) brings you all the emotion, the drama and the random drug testing of sports...