The Comedy of Errors
Oct. 22nd, 2014 09:39 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
magidSunday I ushered for ASP's production of The Comedy of Errors in Brighton High School's mostly-abandoned theater (they don't have enough arts funding; all that happens in there during school is ROTC drills, which is sad for such a large space, which even had some rather church-like stone carvings on the sides).
The show was put on by ASP, sort of: it was put on by Snoo & Snee, Thee Amazing Siamese Twins ande thier Traveling Siyd Show Sircus, a rather third-rate freak-show, using their 'backstage' space filled with costumes and random cruft (a huge clock face, a huge variety of lights in many colors, a dead rocking-horse, an old piano, etc. etc. etc.). The players included Joe the recently escaped escape artist, Blue the tattooed lady, Zsaasz the contorting skeleton, Brawndo (the strong(er than average) man), Jacque Le Jacque the happiest clown in the world (due to much drinking and smoking...), a bearded lady, a woman with huge feet, and the Siamese twins themselves (who were connected, but not always on the same side, also a man and a woman of different ages and heights....). (Why, you might ask, would this be the frame story? There are references in the text to the strange folk in Ephesus, more than once, and the director used that as a springboard.)
It was fabulous, a ton of laughs. Many of the freak-show folks played multiple roles in the Shakespeare play; though they changed outfits for each character, their black and white face paint stayed the same, which emphasized the secondary characters, as well as making their expressions that much more obvious. There was a lot of physical comedy, with people running around (on stage and through the audience), using odd props (swords were plungers), and a lot of just-over-the-top overacting (Antipholus giving Luciana first a flower, then a teddy bear, then kneeling and holding a boom box over his head playing "In Your Eyes", all while the Siamese twin playing Luciana (a man in a bright pink wig and a beard) tries to keep his twin playing Adriana from waking from the sound).
About the play itself, it still seems ridiculous that the Antipholus traveling to try to find his twin brother doesn't suspect *something* when all these people claim to recognize him, or say he did things he hadn't. And I'm not too entranced with the non-traveling Antipholus' character, either. The deux-ex-machina of the wife having been a nun all these years strains credulity just a mite, and of course it's a comedy so no one dies, but no one mourns those lost decades, either.
The show was put on by ASP, sort of: it was put on by Snoo & Snee, Thee Amazing Siamese Twins ande thier Traveling Siyd Show Sircus, a rather third-rate freak-show, using their 'backstage' space filled with costumes and random cruft (a huge clock face, a huge variety of lights in many colors, a dead rocking-horse, an old piano, etc. etc. etc.). The players included Joe the recently escaped escape artist, Blue the tattooed lady, Zsaasz the contorting skeleton, Brawndo (the strong(er than average) man), Jacque Le Jacque the happiest clown in the world (due to much drinking and smoking...), a bearded lady, a woman with huge feet, and the Siamese twins themselves (who were connected, but not always on the same side, also a man and a woman of different ages and heights....). (Why, you might ask, would this be the frame story? There are references in the text to the strange folk in Ephesus, more than once, and the director used that as a springboard.)
It was fabulous, a ton of laughs. Many of the freak-show folks played multiple roles in the Shakespeare play; though they changed outfits for each character, their black and white face paint stayed the same, which emphasized the secondary characters, as well as making their expressions that much more obvious. There was a lot of physical comedy, with people running around (on stage and through the audience), using odd props (swords were plungers), and a lot of just-over-the-top overacting (Antipholus giving Luciana first a flower, then a teddy bear, then kneeling and holding a boom box over his head playing "In Your Eyes", all while the Siamese twin playing Luciana (a man in a bright pink wig and a beard) tries to keep his twin playing Adriana from waking from the sound).
About the play itself, it still seems ridiculous that the Antipholus traveling to try to find his twin brother doesn't suspect *something* when all these people claim to recognize him, or say he did things he hadn't. And I'm not too entranced with the non-traveling Antipholus' character, either. The deux-ex-machina of the wife having been a nun all these years strains credulity just a mite, and of course it's a comedy so no one dies, but no one mourns those lost decades, either.