THE COMEDY OF ERRORS – REVIEW OF STRATFORD FESTIVAL PRODUCTION

James Karas

Keira Loughran directs an imaginative and at times robust production of The Comedy of Errors for the Stratford Festival. Shakespeare’s short play comes directly from Roman comedy, Plautus’ Menaechmi, to be exact. It involves two sets of identical twins with identical names, separated from childhood. They find themselves in Ephesus and mistaken identities and mayhems ensue. There are opportunities for a lot of physical humour and verbal exchanges that can be the source of laughter if well executed.

Loughran takes the play by the scruff of its neck, shakes it up vigorously and gives us a sometimes enjoyable and at times confusing evening in the small Studio Theatre. The play requires some 18 actors, a lot of commotion with entrances and exits and deserves a larger stage but Loughran does the best she can in the small space available.

 

Members of the company in The Comedy of Errors. Photography by Cylla von Tiedemann.

The play is set in Ephesus but the Ephesus of this production is somewhere in the imagination both in location and time. The costumes are a motley collection of colours and styles, vaguely sexually provocative and the only locale I could deduce was anywhere, anytime.

Men take on women’s roles and vice versa without any respect for Shakespeare’s text. The Duke of Ephesus is played by Juan Chioran dressed like a great Victorian dame but with suede boots above the knee and enough leg showing to place her anywhere you want. The courtesan is played by Sebastien Heins in drag. Heins is a big man and Qasim Khan who plays Antipholus of Ephesus, a client of the courtesan, is not. One can just imagine the services rendered by the courtesan to him to deserve a very expensive present that Antipholus is buying for her!

Egeon (Gordon Patrick White), the Syracusan merchant and father of one set of twins wore a top hat, long coat and had piggy tails that made him look like an indigenous North American in offensive attire.

Amelia Sargisson (left) as Luciana and Alexandra Lainfiesta as Adriana. 

Photo: Cylla von Tiedemann.

Luciana (Amelia Sargisson), the sister-in-law of Antipholus of Ephesus, is made to look like Sarah Palin.

Antipholus of Syracuse (Jessica B. Hill) is a woman while Antipholus of Ephesus (Qasim Khan) is a man. With their wild hairdos and purple shawls, they look like unemployed actors trying to make an impression.  Similarly, the servant Dromio of Syracuse (Beryl Bain) is a man while Dromio of Ephesus (Josue Laboucane) is a man.

You get the idea. But there is a question: what is the point of all of this? The plot has enough intricacies and can stand on its own as highly entertaining of well done. If Loughran had a vision for the play, it escaped me. All the variations in costume, sex and look-alikes added confusion rather than clarity and just plain fun.

The production did contain some forceful delivery of lines, physical comedy and imaginative choreography of physical encounters which produced laughter.

Rod Beattie as Dr. Pinch, the schoolmaster and conjurer, almost steals the show He looks like a plastic toy which shakes and quivers and suddenly stops on being given a signal. Beattie also plays Luce, a grotesquely obese woman.

Loughran seems to have been striving for a production that is so imaginative as to be out of this world but the result was simply confusing. There were just too many things that were inexplicable and they took away from the virtues of the production rather than adding to them. Too bad.

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The Comedy of Errors by William Shakespeare opened on June 1 and will run in repertory until October 14, 2018 at the Studio Theatre, Stratford, Ontario. www.stratfordfestival.ca