Stage Review - The Comedy of Errors (Seattle Shakespeare)
Stage Review - The Comedy of Errors
Presented By: Seattle Shakespeare Company, Seattle, WA
Show Run: January 1 - January 28, 2024
Date Reviewed: Thursday, January 11, 2024 (Preview)
Reviewed By: Greg Heilman
Typically, when I look to review a show that I’ve seen previous incarnations of, or am largely familiar with, I look not just at the typical components, acting, directing, set design, and so forth, but also at a set of differentiators. I like to see directors that make their telling of a familiar story unique, and I especially like when they take risks in doing so. Whether it’s by using an existing piece to tell a more complex story through layering, or setting it in a different time and space to give it a fresh context, risks taken through casting, setting, or by tweaking another creative component don’t always work, but when they do, a director can create a special and memorable piece of work. The latest show on the docket of The Seattle Shakespeare Company is The Comedy of Errors. The tale of twin brothers, each named Antipholus, and their servants, each also with the same name Dromio, separated early on in their lives by a shipwreck, is perhaps Shakespeare’s most humorous play. It’s surely his most farcical.
The telling of The Comedy of Errors usually involves a medium sized cast (there is just shy of twenty individual roles), and the roles of the brothers and their respective servants are played by separate actors, though sometimes groups can get lucky and find twins to play them. In any case, many directors need to get creative to make the relationship believable. Here, though, Director Jimmy Shields has bucked a lot of these trends and is using a cast that skews small. Using actors from Seattle Shakespeare’s Drum and Colours Company, Jimmy has brought in a cast of six to cover the eighteen roles identified in the program. This means that each actor is playing multiple parts here, some up to four roles throughout the play. The risk more than pays off, though, as the group he ha assembled includes an extremely talented collection of actors. And while each actor is excellent in each role, the coup de gras is the casting of Antipholus and Dromio, each pair played by one person. Ayo Tushinde is both Antipholus of Syracuse and Antipholus of Ephesus, while Gloria Alcalá handles both of the Dromio roles. Generally, I love these characters in The Comedy of Errors, their interactions, and the clumsiness of their misidentified personas. But what Ayo and Gloria bring to these roles is so much more, and I adore the way that these actors play their characters. I feel like because the actors know both of the twins, they bring added depth to each individual.
These roles are each so subtly different from the other, it takes a good amount of agility not just to understand which of the twins they are playing at any one time, but which aspects of their personalities to accentuate, thereby identifying the particular character they’re playing in a scene. Katrina Hess is the costume designer here, and has presented a composition of styles including Asian, Victorian, Medieval and Modern. At face value, it seems like this combination shouldn’t work, but like every aspect of this play, it does. Ayo and Gloria, besides altering their personalities ever so slightly between characters also have wardrobe changes to make. These changes are mostly simple, comprised of accessories being added or removed, like a jacket here or a necklace there, small but important nonetheless. And changing a small piece of a costume is sometimes more challenging, making sure to pick up a small piece rather than a new dress or suit. Some of the changes are so quick that it seems a miracle that they don’t miss a step. And while this show generates enough laughter from its situational setting of mixed-up identities and confused attractions, the franticness that ensues not just takes that humor to another level, it actually becomes part of the joke itself. It’s a show that never takes itself seriously, and everything that Jimmy has done here creatively with his team is done just adds to the wonderfully funny foundation that Shakespeare built.
Aside from just the humor, there is plenty of that, what I admire about this is the riskiness of it all. Having such a small cast perform this show could cause it to trip over itself, but it doesn’t. The more complicated the wardrobe and character changes become, the better the show is. And this doesn’t end with the two sets of twins, either. Brandi Birdsong is Adriana (wife of Antipholus of Ephesus) as well as two separate merchant characters. Brandi’s Adrianna runs the gamut of emotion, while her more supporting roles are presented uniquely and with their own style. Rhys Daly starts The Comedy of Errors as Solinus, Duke of Ephesus, but is more predominant here as Luciana, sister to Adriana. This role, and the way Rhys plays it, is such a treat. There’s a balance in the characters Rhys plays, between masculinity and femininity, and he’s got a real knack for presenting each to just the right extent, making his performance humorous, but not absurd.
Kathy Hsieh is one of those, along with Jesse Calixto, that has taken on four of the play’s characters. Kathy’s accents are as varied as her characters, each funnier than the last. She’s the stranger arriving on the shores of Ephesus in search of his “other” Antipholus, a police officer, a conjurer, and a merchant. And like the rest of this cast, Kathy proves that it doesn’t matter the gender of the role that she is playing, as long as it’s done well, it’ll garner the necessary response, in this case a heck of a lot of laughter. Speaking of laughter, I can’t not mention the comedic excellence that is Jesse Calixto in The Comedy of Errors. Jesse brings more to his supporting roles than many leads do to their more principal performances in other productions. He’s four characters, but it’s not just quantity, it’s the quality, the individuality that he brings to each and every one. His Angelo and Emilia specifically alone are worth the price of admission.
Pretty much everything works well here, and while the key to delivering this as intended comes down to the cast, it needs support on the creative side as well. As a comedy that leans on situational, physical, and dialogue-related humor to succeed, the faster the pace the better, and the Seattle Shakespeare version of this story has a very good flow to it. Tucker Goodman’s scenic design is simple, made up of one primary facade with interchangeable components that allows for quick changes to keep the pace moving so there’s no loss of momentum. I’d like to also call out Chih-Hung Shao and the lighting design of this show. Lighting is used to direct the audience’s attention for sure, but it’s also used to allow actors to step out of their scenes and monologue at times. It’s a team effort to bring a show like this together, making what seems like a risky endeavor seem like it was always meant to be this way.
The Comedy of Errors is, for my money, one of Shakespeare’s most enjoyable plays. By itself, it’s lighthearted, funny, and extremely accessible. Add to this foundation a small but mighty, and extremely talented, cast who, to a person, understand how to deliver the Bard’s humor and you’ve got a well-paced and rollicking good time at the theatre. What some might deem risky, Director Jimmy Shields handles without missing a beat. The Comedy of Errors is a hilarious and unique telling of a classic piece of Shakespeare’s library and is should be on everyone’s list this January.
The Seattle Shakespeare Company production of The Comedy of Errors runs onstage at the Center Theatre at Seattle Center through January 28. For more information, including how to get tickets, visit https://www.seattleshakespeare.org/.
Photo Courtesy: Giao Nguyen
