Shakespearean actors are not born. They
are nurtured and developed. And if part of this means learning
that the show must go on no matter what the conditions, then
the Kings County Shakespeare Company’s Classical Actor Training
Program Company certainly earned its stripes when it opened "The
Comedy of Errors" on the hottest evening of the year – a
day when triple-digit temperatures rendered most people in the
metropolitan area helpless in front of their air conditioners.
"The Comedy of Errors" is a robust farce involving
two sets of twins. In the original play, Aegeon, a merchant of
Syracuse, and his wife, Aemilia, have twin sons, both named Antipholus.
The twin sons have twin servants, both named Dromio. When the
two sets of twins were mere infants one set was separated from
their parents thanks to a violent storm at sea and taken to Ephesus,
a city in conflict with Syracuse.
As the play opens, Solinus, Duke of Ephesus, sentences Aegeon
to death because the laws of Ephesus dictate that any Syracusean
seen in Ephesus will be executed unless he can pay a ransom of
1,000 marks. More to gain the Duke’s sympathy than to procure
his release, Aegeon says that he is only in Ephesus to search
for his son, Antipholus of Syracuse, who five years ago went
off with Dromio of Syracuse in search of their missing brothers.
As luck would have it, both Aegeon and the wandering twins arrive
in Ephesus at the same time, unbeknownst to the missing twins,
who live in the city. Mayhem results.
Adriana, the wife of Antipholus of Ephesus, mistakes Antipholus
of Syracuse for her husband; and the wife of Dromio of Ephesus,
a formidable kitchen-wench, believes Dromio of Syracuse is hers.
Antipholus of Syracuse courts Adriana’s sister Luciana, who is
both flattered and shocked by this infidelity. There are a few
encounters with the law, an angry goldsmith who believes he has
been cheated, and a ruffled courtesan Antipholus of Ephesus has
been courting. Ultimately, Antipholus of Ephesus is arrested
as a madman and locked up in an abbey before everything is set
straight and the family is reunited.
That’s the way the original goes.
In the Kings County Shakespeare Company’s production, director
Alex Roe has made Solinus, the Duke of Ephesus into Solina, the
Duchess of Ephesus, played by Lani Ford; and Aegeon, father of
the twins, into Egea, mother of the twins, played by Benedetta
Agnoli.
There are several other sex changes, but the most important is
in the role of Dromio of Syracuse, who becomes Dromia of Syracuse,
played by Noelle Pasatieri.
Although the purpose of this company is to train actors and the
company has more female than male actors to train, clearly this
last switch does not suit the purposes of the play. If it were
merely a question of straining the audience’s willingness to
suspend disbelief, it would be entirely in line with the play.
After all, we’re already expected to believe that the two sets
of twins dress and look so alike that they can fool their wives.
But making Dromio a woman ruins one of the funniest scenes in
the play, in which Dromio of Syracuse compares the body of his
twin’s wife to the different parts of the world. When Antipholus
of Syracuse (Patrick Curley) asks him where stood Belgia, the
Netherlands, he replies, "O, sir, I did not look so low."
Does this make sense coming from a woman – in Shakespeare’s times?
However, it must be noted that Pasatieri is nonetheless excellent
in her difficult role, giving one of the liveliest and funniest
performances of the evening.
Opening in sweltering heat no doubt sapped the actors of much
of the energy needed for Shakespeare’s very physical comedy.
(There are two casts, the blue and the green; this review covers
the blue.) Hopefully in subsequent productions the actors will
be able to speed up the action and dialogue to better recreate
the rough-and-tumble theater of Elizabethan England.
The cast would also do well to loosen up and lighten up. This
is a comedy, not a drama of mistaken identities. The audience
knows very well that everything will turn out all right in the
end and nothing needs to be taken seriously. If the actors would
play their parts a bit more as if they knew that too, perhaps
a better time could be had by all.
"The Comedy of Errors" continues
through Aug. 16 at the Metropolitan Playhouse (220 East Fourth
St. at Avenue A, Manhattan) at 8 pm, at the Brooklyn Conservatory
of Music (58 Seventh Ave. at Lincoln Place) on Aug. 17 at 8 pm
and at Fort Greene Park (Myrtle and Dekalb avenues) on Aug. 18
and 19 at 4 pm. Tickets are $10. For reservations call (718)
398-0546. Fort Greene Park performances are free.
