Elm Shakespare Serves Comedy, No Errors

A twin named Dromio is yelling at his twin brother, also named Dromio. The Dromio outside wants to be let in the house. The Dromio inside the house doesn’t want to let him in. They don’t believe each other’s stories. As hatches in the door fly open and closed, the entire misunderstanding could be cleared up, if they ever made eye contact, got a good look at each other. But fate and some tight choreography prevent that from happening. The misunderstandings grow — and get funnier.

Centuries after its creation, The Comedy of Errors (the expression derives from the title of the play) lives up to its name. The play, now running in Edgerton Park through Sept. 1 thanks to Elm Shakespeare Company, centers on not one, but two sets of identical twins. As related in the play’s highly improbable and entertaining expository speech — given by Egeon of Syracuse (Michael Jerome Johnson), the father of one of the sets of twins, in a bit of legal trouble himself upon his arrival in the city of Ephesus — almost 20 years ago, Egeon was traveling with his wife, his identical twin sons, and the sons’ servants, also identical twins, when a shipwreck separated them. The storm swept away Egeon’s wife Emelia, one of the sons, and one of the servants. Egeon returned to Syracuse with the two remaining boys. In memory of the kids he lost, Egeon gave his surviving son the same name as the presumed deceased son, Antipholus. He did likewise with the servant twin, naming him Dromio.

Thus does Shakespeare will into existence two sets of identical brothers who share the same name. One set of Antipholuses and Dromios is raised in Syracuse. The other set — unbeknownst to Egeon and his charges, but known by us at the beginning of the play — washed ashore in Ephesus and were raised there, never knowing their father.

They all come together when, shortly after Egeon’s arrival, Antipholus and Dromio of Syracuse arrive in Ephesus, looking for their twin brothers. The Antipholus and Dromio of Ephesus have become upstanding citizens with families and a host of social and political entanglements. These become entangled even further when the surrounding citizens of Ephesus confuse the Syracuse twins with their local counterparts. All four twins end up in a ton of familial, social, and legal trouble. Will they ever get out of it?

Unlike at least one of Shakespeare’s other comedies, the plot to The Comedy of Errors is surprisingly coherent once you accept its implausible premise. The situation Shakespeare sets up allows him to do what he still does maybe better than anyone in the English language: sling word after marvelous word in the service of entertainment and, when he sets his mind to it, illumination. So the play is rife with one glorious misunderstanding after another, people talking past each other to great comic effect, resolutions that swoop in out of nowhere, and last but not least, jokes about sex and poop.

Director Rebecca Goodheart knows how to handle this material, especially in the context of providing outdoor theater. The program design lets you in on her raucous Seussian intentions. The set, designed by Izmir Ickbal while not a full-on cartoon, is appropriately whimsical and candy-colored, promising sparkles. Bouts of exposition, when the script demands they must occur, are accompanied by music, partly from a trumpet player onstage. But most of all, the actors uniformly turn The Comedy of Errors into a winsome sprint, burning through the show in 90 minutes (with no intermission) that does great service to the wittiness of the script. Much of Shakespeare’s comedy depends on the characters in his play not always being the brightest bulbs in the box, but Goodheart and the actors ensure that the repartee is snappy and that jokes come fast and furious.

Manu Kumasi and KP Powell give their twin Antipholuses a fleet bravado that makes you understand why one is a cherished member of his city’s society, yet just rapscallion enough to be believable when trouble comes their way. Christopher Seiler and Benjamin Curns likewise shine as the twin Dromios, who are given the most opportunities to be both the smartest and dumbest people on the stage. Their performances anchor the sprawling cast of Ephesians around them. Courtney Stewart draws laughs as an aggrieved goldsmith who believes he’s been robbed. Tamika Pettway inserts sly wit into her role as a dubiously successful businesswomen in town. Kaia Monroe and Terra Chaney, as Antipholus’s wife Adriana and Adriana’s sister Luciana, respectively, portray Antipholus’s boisterous household collectively and distinguish themselves individually as one who flies off the handle and another who keeps her wits about her.

It all adds up to a charming night of outdoor theater in Edgerton Park. Now in its 24th year, Elm Shakespeare is going strong, as the cast and crew of The Comedy of Errors find the nugget of wisdom among the shenanigans of this bunch of fools: that so much human ugliness comes from misunderstandings, and all’s well that ends well if people can put aside past grudges after the truth is revealed.

Elm Shakespeare Company’s A Comedy of Errors runs in Edgerton Park on Whitney Avenue through Sept. 1. Admission is free. Music begins at 7:30 p.m. Play at 8 p.m. Visit Elm Shakespeare’s website for more information.