Cast members Joel Colvin, Diego Sandino, Jason Samarin & Dom Hernandez. Photo by Brianna Dow.
Imagine you’ve just arrived in a foreign city filled with new sights, new people, new experiences.
Wow, everyone is greeting you warmly, treating you like a friend, calling you by name. They’re even handing you gold jewelry, blowing you fond kisses, and asking you to come home to dinner right this minute. No one listens when you tell them that there must be some mistake, and they’re being very…insistent. Now imagine the same thing is happening to your sidekick—and he’s pretty much rolling with it.
Wonderful or confusing? Enjoyable or terrifying? All of the above? Yes.
Welcome to “The Comedy of Errors.”
One of Shakespeare’s earliest and shortest plays, “The Comedy of Errors” is also one of the fastest—everything that’s happening on stage happens in (more or less) real time. It also shoehorns in several of the playwright’s favorite devices: mistaken identity, shipwrecks, rival cities, unsent messages, identical twins who think the other twin is dead, nuns who know important secrets, and why-not marriages that bring the whole brouhaha to a happy ending.
If the whole thing sounds a bit like a circus where the clowns have taken charge, you’re reading director Kelli Kauterman’s mind.
“Sometimes, a play is just meant to be silly and funny, much like going to the circus,” she said.
Kauterman is excited by how brilliantly costume designer Jen Kilander is leaning into the circus/carnival concept—while making the costumes do the necessary work of helping the audience keep track of which twin is where and why.
“Jen Kilander should win everything,” said Kauterman, adding that she thinks audiences will be delighted by the costumes.
The constant confusion of the twin Antipholuses and twin Dromios that is so central to the action of this play makes it perfect for the park—for more than one reason. While Kauterman was thrilled to find two pairs of actors with similar features, statures and energy, no matter how alike they are, stage twins are always more believably alike when seen from a distance.
“Some plays benefit from the quiet intimacy of indoor spaces,” she said. “This one thrives in the open air.”
“It’s not,” she added with a laugh, “a subtle play. It’s not deep.”
In the park, Kauterman noted, actors can be bigger and louder, bringing the energy to a level of “not-real-life” that suits this action-filled play.
While Kauterman has acted in other park shows (most recently last year’s “Richard III”) and directed at several theatres in the Harrisburg area, this is her first time directing Free Shakespeare in the Park, and she’s excited to take on the challenge.
“I grew up in a really rural part of Pennsylvania, and the year I moved to Harrisburg, the park show was ‘King Lear,’” she said. “I remember feeling so grateful that my new city had such a vibrant arts community. I am glad to be part of that legacy.”
Kauterman describes the park show as “magical,” and she’s not alone in that assessment. Thousands of people come to Reservoir Park every year to sit in the gathering dusk while a small group of actors tell a 400-year-old story that can still make us laugh or shiver or wonder.
“Maybe we’re not going to heal the world with this play,” Kauterman said. “But for a couple of hours, all of us—actors, director, audience—will be together, hearing these words, laughing at these antics. That, to me, is magic.”
“The Comedy of Errors” runs May 31 to June 15 at the band shell in Reservoir Park, Harrisburg, Wednesday to Saturday at 7:30 p.m. Shakespeare in the Park is always free. Gamut Theatre recommends that patrons bring a chair or blanket for seating, remember sunscreen and bug spray, and arrive early to claim a great spot. They will also be accepting canned goods for the Bethesda Mission. For more information, visit www.gamuttheatre.org/fsip.
UPCOMING EVENTS
At Gamut Theatre
www.gamuttheatre.org
717-238-4111
Free Shakespeare in the Park
“The Comedy of Errors”
May 31 to June 15
At Open Stage
www.openstagehbg.com
717-232-6736
Open Stage Gala
Celebrating Season 39
Saturday, June 8, at King Mansion
OSHKids Summer presents
“Winnie the Pooh”
Enrolling now for class starting June 10
Performances June 28 and 29
Black Newsbeat
June 12 and 26 at 7 p.m.
EFF (Erotic Fan Fiction) LIVE!
Saturday, June 15, at 7:30 p.m.
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