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The Comedy of Errors @ Great Lakes Theatre Festival 3/27 The Comedy of Errors, now on stage in repertory at the Great Lakes Theatre Festival, is the only one of The Bard's 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, 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 is one of William Shakespeare's earliest scripts -- it's 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 GLTF 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 judgment: This is a delightful interpretation of the Shakespeare farce. It’s fun, fun, fun thanks to Charles Fee, Andrew May and Martin Céspedes.

One 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@greatlakestheater.org at 241-5490. For tickets to this production, which runs until May 3 in repertory with The Seagull call 241-6000 or visit http://www.greatlakestheater.org.

From Cool Cleveland contributor Roy Bberko royberkoATyahoo.com

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.

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