Good Times Roll in “The Comedy of Errors”

Article by Rebecca Romani

New Orleans has been everywhere of late, from acts at this year’s San Diego International Fringe Festival to profiles of the Tremé Quarter on NPR.

It seems only fitting, then, on the tenth anniversary of the drowning of New Orleans, that the city that celebrates life like no other should rise again in The Old Globe’s joyous and spirited “Comedy of Errors,” set in a French Quarter-like locale, complete with a Second Line, winding through with gusto.

Director Scott Ellis (Award-winning Broadway director) has created a magical comedy that fills the outdoor stage with infectious energy. Ellis has thrown out the safe interpretation of the twins from Syracuse and chosen, instead, to set the play in a multicultural, musical pastiche as might have been found in New Orleans’ French Quarter in the high living, volatile 1920’s, set to the sound track of “ St. James Infirmary Blues,” and struts that make up the Second Line sound.

“The Comedy of Errors” is one of Shakespeare’s first separated twin comedies and features not one but two sets of twins. Antipholus of Syracuse (Glenn Howerton of “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia”) is dragging his servant for life Dromio (Rory O’Malley, “The Book of Mormon”) from one place to the other looking for the twin he lost when their ship split in two during a storm. Meanwhile, the other Antipholus is living it up in Ephesus (The French Quarter), stepping out and basically enjoying life as a good-looking wealthy roué with a beautiful if somewhat frustrated wife, attended by his servant for life, Dromio.

Things get dicey when the twins from Syracuse land in Ephesus and find themselves feted, welcomed at every turn, and even wedded- Antipholus to the lovely if slightly high strung Adriana and Dromio to the lusty if slightly scary looking cook, Nell (“You could find whole countries in her person!”) played with great gusto by Lindsay Brill. Poor Antipholus takes a shine to Adriana’s sister, Luciana and Dromio spends his time fending off Nell’s advances and trying to figure out if his master has taken leave of his senses.

Eventually, each runs into the other’s twin, there’s the matter of missing money, a necklace and a slew of jokes and turns of fate sharply done with a great sense of timing.

Unbeknownst to both sets of twins, their father, Egeon, a poor Syracusean peddler, has come to Ephesus looking for his sons and their servants and runs afoul of the law, while their mother, Emilia (the multi-faceted and screamingly funny Deborah Taylor), has become a strong-willed Abbess.

Ellis brilliantly leads his talented cast through the twists and turns of the saga of twins, throwing in musical moments that bring the house down. Garth Schilling as The Courtesan come torch singer is both a hoot and a show stopper. His sultry, suggestive “Put Some Sugar in My Bowl,” gives the cabaret scene just the right mix of sex and burlesque. And when Luciana lets loose her stunning voice from the stairway, you can see what Tennessee Williams saw in all those pent-up Southern Belles.

Shakespeare is nothing if not flexible in his interpretation. This is one of the few plays where Shakespeare takes semi-gentle jabs at the Church, diplomatic ties, and the State and Ellis uses this to full advantage. There are raucous moments of modern commentary and in his casting, Ellis uses multi-racial pairings to great effect while playing on a certain androgynous uncertainty with the speak easy-settings, all echoes of contemporary concerns. Which is why the term “slave” in reference to the Dromios so grates on the ear at the beginning. However, Ellis is deft with the dialog and timing so that quickly fades into a faint echo.

The one issue with the play might be that it’s too cheerful, moving too fast from comedic sequence to sequence. Like many of Shakespeare’s works, there are hints of a darker tale- a father, Egeon, roaming the world looking for his lost sons, a wife- Adriana, wandering dangerously close to Blanche Dubois territory, and a mother turned monastic over the loss of her family. If these would be given a little more weight, the comedic turns would gain in substance. But there is still plenty of time in the run for the subtext to deepen.

Ellis solves the issue of the twins by having Howerton (Antipholus) and O’Malley (Dromio) play both sides of the pair. O’Malley plays a wonderful servant and foil to the humors of his master, but as the servant, has to remain fairly consistent in both roles. Howerton, on the other hand, has the challenge of establishing each Antipholus as distinct and does a great job carving out space for each to inhabit the plot.

Megan Dodds and Barrett Doss are brilliantly cast as the multi-racial sisters (Dodds is White and Doss is Black). Dodds takes the frustrated Adriana to the top of hissy fits and back while Doss carefully banks down Luciana’s growing interest in Antipholus, making her torch song at the top of the stairs that more stunning. It’s a pairing that conjures up the kindness of strangers, the hothouse hysteria of a certain kind of Southern household and the odd legacy of the Octroon Ballroom which drifts down the bloodlines of New Orleans families today.

Austin Durant also does a brief but brilliant turn as Duke Solonius- all noblesse oblige and magnanimity as only old money and mafia heads can be as he offers Egeon (played with cowering empathy by Patrick Kerr, best known for “Noel” on “Fraser”) a day’s reprieve to either gather the money to pay the fine for illegally working in Ephesus or face execution. But it is as Doctor Pinch, the fiery preaching doctor, half Chautauqua, half Cab Callaway that Durant truly shines and grabs the stage by the throat.

This is also one of those rare productions where the set works almost as hard as the actors. Designed by Alexander Dodge, the smallish outdoor theatre stage plays host to beautiful facsimiles of iconic French Quarter architecture with the high windows and gorgeous iron lacework balconies. The main house does double duty as a revolving set turns it from exterior to parlor in seconds while the space between the buildings give off the real feel of alleyways. Linda Cho’s costumes hit the right note with meticulous attention to detail and class. The women’s ‘20’s shifts move with their emotions and the men’s suits are just the right degree of sharp and classy.

Tied together as this “Comedy” is with the knowing wit of the musicians’ take on New Orleans Jazz and a cast in command of the play, the good times they are a rollin’ through the outdoor theatre.

Better catch it before the Second Line passes you on by.

‘The Comedy of Errors” runs through September 20, 2015. See http://www.theoldglobe.org/ for dates, times, and details.

IMAGE: The cast of The Old Globe’s 2015 Summer Shakespeare Festival production of The Comedy of Errors, directed by Scott Ellis, Aug. 16 – Sept. 20, 2015. Photo by Jim Cox.