Comedy of Errors’ at Playhouse
on Park is daffy triage theater

WEST HARTFORD — Mistaken identities, two sets of separated twins, a cheating husband, a condemned merchant, and many other characters all played by four actors, create a wild and wonderful world of farcical fantasy at the Playhouse on Park in William Shakespeare’s “The Comedy of Errors.”

Directed by Will Ditterline, these four terrific actors lead by Brad Del-

planche as Dromio, along with Brendan Norton as Antipholus, Jesse Graham as Adriana, and Vanessa Morosco as her sister, Luciana, play all the other characters as well. They make this infrequently performed play buzz with energy and sing with joy.

Set in Ancient Greece, the plot is explained by Delplanche as Egeon, a Syracusan merchant and the father of Antipholus, along with an exceedingly helpful Powerpoint presentation.

Delphanche has the precise comic timing and expressions reminiscent of actor Nathan Lane.

Egeon and his wife were separated at sea, he explains, each with one of their infant twin boys, and each with one of the twin servant boys. They grow up apart until his son, Antipholus of Syracuse, and the servant boy, Dromio of Syracuse, go in search of the other two.

That’s where the comedy ensues, when Antipholus of Syracuse is mistaken for his twin in Ephesus, and the servants are mistaken for each other. But explaining the story line doesn’t explain half of the goings on in this wacky and wild production.

There is an inner ring of audience members who sit around the intimate stage with some being recruited to hold onto the myriad of hats, scarves, ties, and other accouterments that delineate one character from the other.

Although they aren’t required to speak, the inner circle audience members all get swept up in the spirit of the action, as does the rest of the audience.

And what’s not to love? Often the complaint about Shakespeare, and not altogether undeserved, is that the language is so different than the way we speak today, it’s difficult to follow. But all these actors invest their physical actions and expressive motions that bring the meaning of those words to life.

They differentiate their characters by speaking with southern accents for the Syracusans and Italian Mafioso accents for those from the land of Ephesus. Personally, I would prefer the Syracusans to have English accents, since that is the accent we expect to hear when we think of Shakespeare. Then when the Italian kicks in, it would sound that much funnier.

This troupe of four really gets the physicality and sexual innuendo of Shakespeare at his bawdy best and they play it to the hilt, with slow motion kung-fu fighting that is accompanied (as the show is throughout) with sound effects that would have made the Three Stooges darned proud.

Pratfalls, slapstick comedy, kicks to the groin, slaps to the face, and all around running, jumping, and seemingly endless energy and character changes on the fly, make this a feat of daring triage theater.



Stage review

4 stars

the comedy of errors

Theater: Playhouse on Park

Location: Wallace244 Park Road, West Hartford.

Production: Written by William Shakespeare. Directed by Will Ditterline. Costume design by Katie Chihaby. Lighting design by Tim Hache. Production stage manager Ryan Bell. Property master Dawn Loveland.

Running time: 90 minutes with no intermission.

Show times: Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m., Sunday at 2 p.m. through April 17.

Tickets: $20 to $32.50. Call the box office at 860-523-5900 ext. 10, or visit the website: www.playhouseonpark.org.

Actor.................CHARACTER

Brad Delplanche …......... Dromio and others

Vanessa Morosco ......… Luciana and others

Jesse Graham …............. Adriana and others

Brendan Norton ….... Antipholus and others

4 stars Excellent 3 stars Good 2 stars Fair 1 star Poor