[NEohioPAL] Berko review: THE COMEDY OF ERRORS

Roy Berko royberko at yahoo.com
Sun Mar 29 19:07:37 PDT 2009


‘THE COMEDY
OF ERRORS’ played for laughs at GLTF
 
Roy Berko
 
(Member,
American Theatre Critics Association)
 
--THE TIMES
NEWSPAPERS--
 
Lorain
County Times--Westlaker Times--Lakewood News Times--Olmsted-Fairview Times  
 
--COOLCLEVELAND.COM—
 
‘THE COMEDY
OF ERRORS,’ now on stage in repertory at the Great Lakes Theatre Festival, is
the only one of his plays to contain the word “comedy” in its title.  And, that, in and of itself, makes it a
perfect vehicle for GLTF to produce.  First, Charles Fee, the Artistic Director of the company loves comedic
farce and does it extremely well.  Adding to that the company contains Andrew May, who has never
encountered a funny face, a tortured moan, or an over-the-top scene, he hasn’t
devoured.
 
The play, as
far as is known, is one of William Shakespeare's
earliest scripts. It is a show that invites slapstick, while playing
on mistaken identity.  The story
develops through puns and wordplay, which were aimed
at the groundlings, who stood around the base of the thrust stage during
Elizabethan times and did everything,. including throwing spoiled fruit and
oral barbs at the actors to show pleasure or displeasure
 
It was first
printed in the First Folio in 1623, and the earliest known performance is
recorded to have been at Gray's Inn, one of London's law schools, on December
28th, 1594. 
 
Don’t go
expecting a serious message or a moral.  This isn’t that kind of Shakespearean script.  
 
This play’s
obvious plot concerns the separation, then reunion of Egeon and Emelia (husband
and wife), their twin sons, and their twin servants.  The family is separated at sea during a storm, 33 years
before the play starts.   When
one of the grown twins arrives in Ephesus,
which turns out to be the home of his twin, a series of mishaps leads to
wrongful beatings, arrests, accusations of infidelity, theft, and chaotic madness.
 
The GLYF
production is out-and-out fun, with Fee and May having a great time in staging
and acting out the insanity.
 
May plays
both of the twins Antipholus.  The
concept works well until the end, when the pair of twins must appear on stage
at the same time, and then the notion falls apart.  The actor playing the other Antipholus is not nearly May’s
physical double and the switch is very obvious.  The same holds true of the attempt to have both Domios (the
servants) played by Ian Gould.  The
dual tracking is obvious.
 
The other problem with Gould’s double role is that he
doesn’t do either of the twins well.  His attempt to use a lisp for one doesn’t help.   That, along with poor
articulation and errant vocal projection, makes many of Domio’s lines difficult
to understand.
 
Lynn Allison,
as Adriana, the wife of Antipholus of Ephesus, yells through the role, paying
little attention to line meaning.  On the other hand, Gisela Chipe is charming as her sister.
 
Fee, in his
attempt to add humor onto humor, has David Anthony Smith, who plays a
goldsmith, elongate all the numerous times he says, “chain.”  It works the first four or five times,
but after a while the whole shtick becomes annoying.
 
Besides May’s
performance, the highlight of the show is Martin Céspedes’s inventive
choreography.  His use of latin
movements, meticulous attention to movement detail, and creative set changes,
are captivating.  Without his
inventiveness the overall cohesiveness of the show would have been lost.  After a while, each choreographed set
change was met with pleasant anticipation.
 
Again, the
new GLTF facility, with its electronic stage elevators and intimate seating,
enhances the production as does Russell Metheny’s set design.
 
‘CAPSULE
JUDGEMENT:  GLTF’s  ‘THE COMEDY OF ERRORS’ is a delightful
interpretation of the Shakespeare farce.  It’s fun, fun, fun thanks to Charles Fee, Andrew May and Martin
Céspedes.
 
Sidenote:  An excellent ‘TEACHER PREPARATION
GUIDE’ has been prepared by Daniel Hahn and Kelly Schaffer Florian to be used
by instructors who are bringing their students to see the play.  They can be obtained by contacting
Kelly at kflorian at greatlakestheater.org at 216-241-5490.
 For tickets to ‘THE COMEDY OF ERRORS,’ which runs until May 3 in
repertory with ‘THE SEAGULL,’ call 216-241-6000 or visit
www.greatlakestheater.org. 

 Roy Berko's blog, which contains theatre and dance reviews from 2001 through 2009, as well as his consulting and publications information, can be found at http://royberko.info

His reviews can also be found on www.coolcleveland.com and NeOHIOpal (to subscribe visit http://mailman.listserve.com/listmanager/listinfo/neohiopal.)



      




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