By Dan Shaw When you walk into the Tina Packer Playhouse at Shakespeare & Company in Lenox for its production of The Comedy of Errors, you feel as if you’ve stumbled into a backyard barbecue scene about to be shot for a John Waters movie. The actors, who are dressed in an eclectic (if not eccentric) array of casual clothes, are already on the Astrotuf-covered thrust stage; they are dancing, rollerblading and chatting up the audience. They have you laughing before the play has even begun. The Comedy of Errors is a case of mistaken identity — a pair of separated twin brothers, their twin servants and the havoc that ensues when their lives crisscross and they cannot be distinguished. Director Taibi Magar has made the play a screwball comedy that seems like an episode of The Sopranos hijacked by the Marx Brothers. Physical comedy has always been one of the hallmarks of Shakespeare & Company, and The Comedy of Errors is like a master class in slapstick where all the students will get an A+. Every pratfall and punch line is a knockout. Every exit and entrance is an event unto itself. Every actor in every moment is thoroughly engaged and engaging.
As Antipholus of Esphesus and Antinpholus of Syracuse, Ian Lassiter makes the twin brothers so distinct that you marvel as he switches back and forth between the two roles. As his twin servants (both named Dromio) who are thoroughly perplexed by which master they are waiting on, Aaron Bartz is delightfully frustrated and confused. With her blonde updo and pedal pushers, Kelley Curran looks like a caricature of a mobster’s moll, and she nearly steals the show with her performance as the haughty wife who is dumbfounded by her husband and his doppelganger. As her sister, Cloteal L. Home is sexy, flirty and fiery. There’s no need to catalogue all the ways that Magar has ingeniously produced a 90-minute comic tour de force. Whether she has the actors singing like pop-music stars or astonishingly miming a slow-motion homage to Chariots of Fire, the surprises are fast and furious, including how she cleverly brings the two sets of twins together onstage for the final scene. It’s hard to imagine that you will see a harder-working or more enthusiastic ensemble on any stage in the Berkshires this summer. Casting directors should hie thee to Lenox because this production is a showcase for comedic talent. And anyone who wants to laugh out loud while being reminded that there are never-ending ways to reinterpret the Bard should see The Comedy of Errors, which Shakespeare & Company has made a comedy of perfection. The Comedy of Errors (through August 23) Shakespeare & Company Lenox, MA (413) 637-3353 Dan Shaw is the co-founder of Rural Intelligence.danshawwriter.squarespace.com
