A Comedy of Errors (Montgomery Blair High School)

[chomiji]

It's generally a sense of duty that compels parents to attend theatrical performances that involve their offspring. However, we didn't suffer at all this evening by attending A Comedy of Errors at the Young Lady's school (she helped design and build the set and was the Usher Captain for all four performances). This performance was distinguished by colorful Greek/Mediterranean costuming (ca. maybe 1800), a sun-drenched set that appeared to be white stucco building fronts (with many doors) around a town well, resolutely colorblind casting, solid acting in the key roles, and comedic pacing that many professional troupes might envy.

A Comedy of Errors (review)

The play opened with a pre-show carnival, that involved juggling, belly-dancing (quite good), street vendors giving out scarves and dried roses, and face-painting for the younger attendees. When the show actually started, the audience was primed to be amused. Egeon's long tale in the first scene might have snapped them right out of that mood - but a trio of puppeteers wandered down by the footlights and proceeded to act out his story with comically primitive hand-puppets, both prolonging the silly mood and making the tale more understandable to those not at ease with Shakespearian language.

Having avoided a slow start, the young cast proceeded to make merry with boundless energy - and lots of female-to-male cross-dressing. Both Dromios were played - and well-played - by female students, as were the various merchants. Luciana was African American, her sister Adriana Caucasian, and the same reversal was true of the two Antipholi (and was, incidentally, accurately portrayed in the puppet show). None of it mattered: all four handled the difficult lines skillfully, with good diction and excellent projection, as well as on-the-beat comedic timing. Delightful touches included a wandering violinist from the opening carnival who kept reappearing to underscore Adriana's self-pitying monologues (much to her annoyance), flamboyant gesturing and pantomime by the Dromios (one of whom was suddenly doing the Macarena at one point), the four hunky (and well-oiled) palanquin bearers who brought in the Courtesan (possibly an equal-fanservice answer to the belly-dancers), and an Antipholus leaning out of a window after a hectic chase scene to intone wearily "Dromio, Dromio, wherefore art thou Dromio?" - causing the freshmen audience members who are struggling through Romeo and Juliet this semester to lose it entirely.

Audience involvement was so complete that when Egeon was re-united with his long-lost wife - now the Abbess - in the last scene, and they embraced, the audience as one exclaimed "Awwwwww! "

A merry time was had by all!

Comments

[chomiji]

Ooh? So what's wrong with the car?

Mine keeps trying to die in fits and starts - I got it when I was pregnant, so it's pretty old, for a car! She's a 1992 Honda Accord 4-door, dark metal-flake red, and I call her Ruby Lee.

[bad-mushroom.livejournal.com]

The frame is rusted through and the gas tank leaks...and I sent it to the repair shop because I thought there was a crack in the exhaust system. So now I have to clean it out today. It's a '94, so my parents have had it since I was four/five. So basically it all sucks massively :(

Also: yay for Japanese cars! Mine was a Subaru Legacy.

[chomiji]

Yeah, we're of two minds about getting rid of Ruby Lee, even if we get another can, because C. is almost old enough to drive. But you really can get around where she needs to go pretty well by public transportation here, and if she stays past dinner for stage crew, one of us can pick her up. And then there's the insurance costs ... at least she's a girl and has good grades.

Every one would slide down one car if we got a new one - my husband's commute is very long, so he would get something more gas-efficient; I would get his 5-yr-old Avalon (he had a reason for needing a bigger car back then); and I guess C. would learn to drive Ruby.

I don't like the Avalon! It's big and its steering wheel feels like it's set in a block of Jell-O. Hondas have crisper steering than Toyotas.

[bad-mushroom.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I really needed a car to get back and forth between my parents' houses. But c'est la vie, they'll drive me until I figure something out (or not). The insurance costs were okay for me until I had my accident, and even then they weren't too bad because the car was so old.

Eh, let your daughter learn to drive on the old beater :P I loved mine and it was good for me. Plus, if she wrecks it it won't be such a big deal XD

Is an Avalon an SUV? If so, shame! (Of course, if there was a good reason...:D)

[chomiji]

OMG, no, not an SUV! Our neighbors would hardly speak to us if we had an SUV! (Remember, we are ultra-liberal crunchy granola people in Tacky Park!)

No, it's the biggest, cushiest sedan Toyota makes. The company he works for is a consultant for the Department of Defense, and he often had to drive various borderline-elderly muckety-mucks to meetings, so he needed something that had a quiet, comfy ride and cushy seats.

[bad-mushroom.livejournal.com]

Ah, makes sense. I didn't think you'd have an SUV :)

You wouldn't believe the number of SUVs in Portland. I mean, I could understand people needing them up in the Ye Aulde Boonies bits of Maine where I'm originally from, but HALLO, THIS IS A CITY.

[chomiji]

Well, I've heard lots of "reasons" for people having them around here, and it's all a load of manure for most of them. Now, my brother-in-law the minister, who lives in the boonies in western Maryland (Garrett County), needs one - he needs to make house calls on parishoners during the snow season in the mountains. But not around here ... .

[bad-mushroom.livejournal.com]

Yeah, most of the people in my old rural Maine town did need trucks because they were all farmers. But pretty much everyone else...not so much.