"The Comedy of Errors," a fall production presented by Shakespeare on the Green, opened Thursday evening in the courtyard outside the Faunce post office. The show, directed by Arik Beatty '10, is the culmination of five weeks of work and features a mostly freshman cast with varied theatrical experience.
The farcical play follows two sets of identical twins separated at birth, Antipholus of Syracuse and Antipholus of Ephesus and their servants, Dromio of Syracuse and Dromio of Ephesus. When the Syracusan pair arrives in Ephesus, they are repeatedly mistaken for their twin brothers in a series of ridiculous encounters with the brothers' friends and family, leading to flirtations, arrests and accusations.
"The Comedy of Errors" is William Shakespeare's shortest play, and this production runs a brief hour and half, featuring minimal set beyond the ivy-lined brick walls and stone fountain of the courtyard. The staging makes use of the walkway running above the space, allowing for action occurring out of the scene to be visible.
The cast wore modern clothing and Beatty resolved an issue that inevitably arises when staging "the Comedy" - how to represent identical twins - by casting actors with similar hair color and dressing them in matching outfits. The actors portraying the two Antipholuses are blond and clad in preppy button-down dress shirts and khakis, while the Dromios, sharing little physical resemblance save for dark hair, dress more casually in matching jeans, baseball caps and maroon hoodies.
Although the show got off to a slow start while setting up the story, it livened up with the arrival of leads Antipholus and Dromio of Syracuse, played by Sammy McGowan '11 and Phil Arevalo '11 respectively. McGowan's Antipholus is a cocky and flirtatious bachelor, while his married brother, played by Matt Wilde '11, comes off as the more serious and sober of the two.
The main cast ably handles the bawdy jokes and moments of physical humor, such as fights, chases, and an incident with a human battering ram. Arevalo and Kyle Dacuyan '11 were particularly energetic as the twin Dromios, delivering complicated speeches while gesturing and racing around manically.
Sisters Luciana and Adriana, wife of Antiphlus of Ephesus, played by Katie Meyers '10 and Tess Avitabile '11 respectively, turn in entertaining performances, although their roles mostly consist of berating or reacting to their male counterparts. Finn Yarbrough '09 is also memorable in dual roles as the merchant Egeon and Nell, the homely kitchen maid married to Dromio of Ephesus, who torments Dromio of Syracuse.
As in most of Shakespeare's comedy, the mayhem builds up to a predictable but amusing denouement. All in all, this is a funny, fun and fast-paced production of one of the Bard's rarely-staged comedies.
"The Comedy of Errors" runs Oct. 18-21. Tonight's performance will take place at 7 p.m. Saturday and Sunday performances will be at 3 p.m.
