Comedy and Confusion

     I had the honor and joy of seeing Shakespeare’s Comedy of Errors performed by a fortnight ago (I waited two weeks just so I could use that phrase). For those of you not familiar with the Comedy of Errors, here is a short synopsis to provide some clarity:

The city of Ephesus is at war with Syracuse. Anyone from Syracuse who illegally comes to Ephesus must either pay a fine or forfeit his life. Egeon, a merchant from Syracuse, faces this predicament. He tells Duke Solinus that he is in Ephesus searching for his son. When his twin sons and their twin servants were but babies Egeon and his wife were separated in a ship wreck, each with a set of twins. Supposing his wife and other son to be dead Egeon names his surviving son and the servant after the ones he lost. He is now looking for his remaining son, whom he has not seen for several years.

Unbeknownst to him both of his sons are alive and well and in the town of Ephesus. To make matters worse, neither knows that the other exists. Confusion ensues when the brothers and servants are repeatedly mistaken for the other. 

     My main emotional response for this play was puzzlement. According to the director’s notes in the playbook they, “sought to be true to Shakespearean sensibilities, not by way of historical accuracy in costuming and such but rather with respect to the desire to be funny and relevant to our particular audience and the embracing of theatricality.” This meant that while they did change the costumes and add a few modern references, much of the language was still kept the same. This, combined with the content of the play itself (where two twin brothers and their twin servants repeatedly get mistaken for the other) left me in a state of mild confusion.

     Even though the meaning of the words were hard to make out, the actors did a good job of portraying what they meant through voice inflection and body language, so I was not completely lost. The play is a Shakespearean comedy, in that no one dies, but it was also a comedy in the modern sense. While tense at times the situations the twin brothers unknowingly put the other in were comical and much hilarity ensued through out the course of the play. I also felt relief, at the end of the play, when the two sets of twins were reunited and all the confusion was made clear.