Review: The Comedy of Errors

Review: The Comedy of Errors | Shakespeare in the Wild | Centennial, CO | Curtain Up! | Gina Robertson

What better place to enjoy Shakespeare than a dark, empty Ross Dress for Less department store while the rain pours outside. Originally planned and currently scheduled to continue showing at deKoevend Park in Centennial, The Comedy of Errors opened indoors because of the weather, and somehow the setting felt perfectly suited to Shakespeare’s most absurd comedy.

Now in its fifth season, Shakespeare in the Wild is going strong with this farce about two sets of identical twins separated at birth and hilariously mistaken for one another in a romping, chasing, bumbling whirlwind of clever stage gags and inventive physical comedy. Director Aaron Vega calls the play “the Elizabethan equivalent of a one-joke SNL sketch,” an apt description of both Shakespeare’s shortest play and one of his most gloriously clownish.

The opening scene belongs to the lisping Duke (Steve Wilson) and mustachioed Egeon (Shanna Sweeney) who compete for the title of Most Entertainingly Silly as Egeon faces execution for being a Syracusan merchant illegally in Ephesus. It’s an appropriately ridiculous introduction to the mayhem that follows.

Shanna Sweeney; Photo Credit Shannon Altner

This cast is clearly having a great time being ridiculous together. Rachel Darden as Antipholus of Ephesus and Leigh Miller as Antipholus of Syracuse are wonderfully mirrored in costume and mannerisms, while the two Dromios (Mackenzie Beyer and Bussy Gower) are alike enough to be literal mirror images. These four lean enthusiastically into the chaos and confusion, propelling the increasingly tangled story along as townspeople, family members and merchants get swept into the madness.

Beau Fisher and Leigh Miller; Photo Credit: Shannon Altner

Beau Fisher plays Adriana, wife of Antipholus, with delicious comic sharpness wearing a striking red wig, making her a statuesque beauty carrying a fluffy white dog in her arms. The dog, predictably, becomes the source of several golden comedic moments.

Adriana’s sister Luciana (Shannon Altner) is delightfully expressive as she finds herself drawn to a man she believes to be her brother-in-law, switching characters deftly in a moment to play Angelo as well, the merchant seeking payment from Antipholus for a golden chain.

Costumes by Leah Cardenas are simple yet striking, combining Elizabethan ruffs with colored rubber noses. The oversized pants and suspenders are especially fun and add to the production’s deliberately circus-like atmosphere.

Pre-show entertainment and musical accents come courtesy of the talented Abdul Karim Islam on kazoo, banjo and drums. Perched above the stage nearly out of sight, he provides a kind of running sonic commentary, punctuating the action with perfectly timed bursts of sound.

The set consists of little more than a few wooden boxes and a carpenter’s ladder, proving once again that creativity and imagination are all that’s required to transform an empty department store into a vibrant, stimulating world when you have a talented cast and technical director Matthew Combs.

Shakespeare in the Wild is committed to bringing free Shakespeare to the Denver metro area with lively, accessible, wildly entertaining shows like this. See The Comedy of Errors through August 27. 

For Information and to RSVP for Free Tickets: https://www.shakesinthewild.com/