Liz Lauren
The fast-paced carnival of misunderstandings includes many standout performances.
William Shakespeare did not invent the comic trope of mistaken identities, but in The Comedy of Errors, he perfected it. To take one elementary joke and build on it for two and a half hours while continually delighting an audience is a trick that modern comedy writers can only aspire to.
As performed by the richly talented acting company of American Players Theatre — which opened its outdoor season with Comedy on June 11 — this fast-paced carnival of misunderstandings is also filled with exquisitely wrought performances, making each silly character even more charming.
The story — first told by Plautus around 200 B.C. — centers on two sets of twins: masters and servants Antipholus and Dromio of Syracuse and Antipholus and Dromio of Ephesus, separated shortly after birth in a shipwreck that also divided the masters from their parents. Many years later, when both pairs of twins walk the same streets of Ephesus, friends, merchants and even a spouse assume they are the same person. As the mistakes become larger and the stakes higher, the twins become increasingly frenzied as the characters are progressively more unnerved by a world that appears to have gone mad.
Costumed in sumptuous reddish-orange coats and tall, golden hats, the Antipholuses (Casey Hoekstra and Christopher Sheard) are indeed hard to tell apart, until the play’s final scene, when they stand side by side. The Dromios (Cristina Panfilio and Kelsey Brennan) are also dressed nearly identically in clownish red-and-white-striped trousers, with turquoise coats.
Matching wigs and false noses aid the women in assuming the roles of the humble servants. But even more impressive are their twin mannerisms, goofy laughs and similar cadence when delivering their lines. Their reaction at seeing one another at the end of the play is a highlight of their hilarious performances. (Incidentally, this nontraditional casting approach was notable in that it allowed two very talented comedic actresses to shine. Hopefully, audiences can look forward to more gender-blind casting in classics in the future.)
With such a solid quartet at the center of this farce, it is significant that there are also so many stand-out performances in smaller roles. As Egeon, Brian Mani pleads earnestly for his life and for the sympathies of the Duke of Ephesus, explaining his search for his long-lost twin sons and their servants. James Ridge mesmerizes the crowd as the conjuror Pinch. The charming Laura Rook expresses glee when the wrong Antipholus woos her instead of her sister Adriana. And as Aemelia, Colleen Madden finds countless comedic inflections as an abbess who harbors Antipholus and simultaneously chastises Adriana (a feisty Melisa Pereyra) for being such a sour wife.
True to a Shakespearean comedy, the identities are untangled, families are reunited, and all does end well in this outstanding start to American Players Theatre’s summer season.
