From May 1 to May 6, William Shakespeare’s “Comedy of Errors” will be directed by guest artist Daniel Gately. This year’s play brings a different tone to the stage. Farce, slapstick and satire are riddled throughout the performance.
“If people do come to see it, if they do take the chance based on what they saw last year, they’ll be pleasantly surprised,” said Gately. “They’ll see a new play that is very accessible to them and very very very funny. They will laugh a lot.”
But the play is not just a simple comedy. Remember, this is still a Shakespearean performance and it has substance.
The play begins with Egeon, the father of the Antipholus twins. Egeon purchases twin slaves for his twin sons shortly after the boys are born. The family’s journey home turns tragic when their ship wrecks. The twins are split up: Egeon ends up with one of his sons and one slave, Egeon’s wife takes the remaining son and slave with her. More than 30 years will pass before the group is reunited.
This year represents a thematic change of pace. The piece is an all-out comedy, not just a play with the occasional funny line.
“Comedy is something that speaks to pretty much anybody, and the way we are playing it, we are playing it to modern audiences, so I don’t think there is going to be any problem with anybody understanding anything,” Benjamin Adriano (senior, English) said. “You don’t have to have any background in Shakespeare to understand this. I mean the language might be hard to grasp, but of course, being a play, there is going to be a visual side to it. I don’t think there is going to be any problem understanding what is going on.”
This is Gately’s second year here providing entertainment through the work of William Shakespeare. Last year he brought us “Romeo and Juliet.” This time it is a comedy, which amounts to a completely different performance.
“Romeo and Juliet was the great tragedy, everyone knows the story,” said Gately. “‘Comedy of Errors’ is a very light play. It’s very funny. It’s very farcical. It’s one of the precursors of the door-slamming, running-around kind of crazy farce that is so popular today in theatre, on television, you know. They are light years apart in terms of content, although there are wonderful similarities in some of the characters.”
Gatley worries about a possible disconnect from the play to the audience, but is doing everything in his power to make the performance modern and relatable.
He did this well with Romeo and Juliet, adding hit songs from the 1960s and introducing this comical playwright.
“So how does it compare?” Gately said. “It’s lesser-known, and I’m a little worried about that, a little nervous. “‘Romeo and Juliet’ is an automatic draw. ‘Comedy of Errors,’ not as automatic. But if people do come to see it, if they do take the chance based on what they saw last year, they’ll be pleasantly surprised. They’ll see a new play that is very accessible to them and very, very, very funny. They will laugh a lot.”
Gatley is known for changing scenes to accommodate the audience and make them feel comfortable. His twists are surprising. They are not something that you would immediately think of, like placing the scenes in the 1960s.
“…I want to stage it cleanly. I want to, with any Shakespeare play, make it accessible to a contemporary audience,” Gately said. “I want a modern audience to sit in the theatre, in our case under the stars in this beautiful amphitheatre, and just relax and enjoy themselves and not work too hard to understand the nuances of the language and the poetry that is Shakspeare…that a lot of people fear about Shakespeare. So my job is to make it accessible to our audience. And with the help of updating it, setting it in the 1960s, using some pretty funky lounge music from that era, great choreography and taking a cue from some modern 60s references, I think it will be very accessible. That was my main concern about this play and the main thing that differentiates it between last year’s ‘Romeo and Juliet.’ R and J, people know the story. ‘Comedy of Errors,’ no one knows the story.”
This play is going to change the way students think of Shakespeare. The atmosphere is light yet elegant, playful and hysterical. This performance is something that people shouldn’t miss.
“Come. It’s going to be a great show. It’s incredibly fun to put it on,” Adriano said.
Tickets are $5 for general admission and parking is free in Lot 3. Gates open at 6:00 p.m. The performance will begin at sundown at the University Amphitheatre.
For additional information, contact the Department of Theatre at (209) 667-3451. To get tickets online, go to www.csustan.edu/shakespeare.