As a playwright, it’s never popular to speak the words “I don’t like watching Shakespeare” aloud. So, instead, I’ll just put them in print. It’s not that I don’t like the plays, it’s just that once I’ve read them once, seen them once, I’m happy to retire them.
The Comedy of Errors, itself a rather structurally flawed play, happens to be one of the few Shakespeares of which I’ve seen multiple productions. So boy did these students have to work hard to win this curmudgeonly audience member over. And work they did.
The ever-impressive Studio 58 students, combined with the magic of director Scott Bellis and a dream design team have created the most refreshing, original, engaging, quirky and laugh-out-loud funny piece of theatre I’ve seen all season.
There’s so much to take in: the breathtaking opening movement sequence, Pam Johnson’s grungy Steam Punk set, Naomi Sider’s colourful and ever-surprising costume design, Shawn Sorensen’s Tim Burton-esque underscoring, Ital Erdal’s ever-complimentary lighting, Bellis’ inventive staging and the perfect pace for a show that, in writing, can drag on for an eternity. Never in my life have I urged an audience to run, not walk, to see Shakespeare – until now.
If you’re not familiar with the play, as you can imagine, there are a lot of mistaken identity errors that lead to laughs (see play title), mostly stemming from characters having twins they don’t know about and the surrounding fifth business confusing them for one another over and over and over again.
But there’s real comedy here, certainly in the leads, but more prominently in the strong character actors who make of the periphery of the play: Noah Rosenbaum and Joel Ballard’s work as servants make for some of the evening’s greatest laughs, as do Adele Noronha and Carlos Rodriguez’s villagers.
That characters with very little actual dialogue can steal such focus is a testament that the instructors at Studio are doing something right. It should come as no surprise that the school has been noted as Canada’s foremost acting school time and time again.
Comedy of Errors
Studio 58
Remaining Performances:
January 27 — February 20
8:00 pm Tuesdays – Saturdays, 3:00 pm Saturday – Sunday
Call 604 992?2313 to make reservations
Photographs by David Cooper.