Prepare to laugh loud and laugh often during Allen Community College’s performance of William Shakespeare’s “The Comedy of Errors.”
The show opens tonight at 7:30 and will run on Friday and Saturday at the Bowlus Fine Arts Center.
The story begins with Egeon of Syracuse, played by director Tony Piazza, telling the story of his family. He and his wife had two sets of identical twin sons. They both had the name Antipholus. The couple also raised twin boys called Dromio and they acted as servants to the two Antipholuses. The family split up after a ship wreck many years earlier. One son and one Dromio are raised by Emilia. When Antipholus of Syracuse and his Dromio land in Ephesus confusion begins to pop up.
The confusion of two identical sets of twins being in the same town lends to some great humor. Jordan Fountain, Dromio of Syracuse, and Gage Dickerson, Dromio of Ephesus, do wonderfully well in using facial expression and body movement to roll in a joke. Both characters become confused during every scene because they don’t realize they are speaking with two different Antipholuses.
Adriana, wife of Antipholus of Ephesus, played by Danielle Venter, gets stuck in the center of the mess. She can’t wrap her mind around why her husband couldn’t possibly want to come home and spend time with her.
Antipholus of Ephesus, played by Colton Schubert, doesn’t understand why he’s been accused of taking a prized possession and not paying for it. Antipholus of Syracuse, played by Jordan Garcia, keeps getting lucky. People are giving him prized possessions and women claim to be married to him.
The entire cast does a marvelous job making the Elizabethan script modern and fresh.
The play runs a little over an hour and has no intermission. Tickets are $6 for general admission and $4 for students. Allen students are admitted free with a student ID. Advance tickets may be purchased at Iola Pharmacy.
