La Comedia of Errors
William Shakespeare
Bilingual Adaptation by Lydia G. Garcia & Bill Rauch of
a Play On!
Translation by Christina Anderson
 |
| Fidel Gomez, Mark Murphey, Tony Sancho & Catherine Castellanos |
Slapstick comedy reigns supreme while at the same time,
strong messages are pronounced in both English and Spanish about our country’s
current treatment of Latinx immigrants.
While the farcical elements of two sets of identical twins separated at
birth now landing decades later in the same town still draw tons of laughs as
mix-ups abound, there is nothing funny about the realities of deportation that
led to their and their parents’ initial separations or now threaten the miracle
of a family’s long, overdue reunion.
Oregon Shakespeare Festival takes the original, much-beloved, William
Shakespeare The Comedy of Errors and
presents a bilingual adaptation by Lydia G. Garcia & Bill Rauch of a Play
On! translation by Christina Anderson.
OSF’s Comedia of Errors breaks
new grounds on a number of different levels including presenting the ninety-minute
comedy in a stark, fully-lit rehearsal hall to a double-row circle of patrons
who watch (and often participate in) the shenanigans as they unravel all around
them.
Further, Spanish takes no back seat to English, with the two
languages intertwining with a clarity such that everyone feels included and
totally understood.
In this updated telling, a merchant from Mexico, Egéon is
separated from half his family during a sandstorm after a plane crash that
lands his wife and two sons – each one-half of a set of likened-named,
identical twins – in the U.S. while he and the other two halves of twins are
deported by border patrols back to Mexico.
(These events are acted in mime by the cast with much exaggeration and
hilarity as a preamble to the play.) As
our story formally begins where Shakespeare’s original picks up the action,
Egéon has been once again detained thirty-three years later by a U.S. sheriff
as he has crossed the border looking for his sons, Antífolo and Drómio, who
left fifteen years prior to look across America for their long-lost
brothers. \
In true Shakespeare comedic fashion, they arrive in the same
town where their father has been arrested, which is of course the home of their
identical counterparts, Antipholus and the U.S.A. Dromio. A somewhat sympathetic sheriff has given
Egéon until sunset to come up with the $100,000 bail that will allow him to
stay in the U.S. rather than being arrested and deported once again. That is just enough time for the four
brothers, a wife, a sister-in-law, and a number of towns people to become
thoroughly embroiled in mixed identities, with strangers handing strangers they
think they actually know money, jewelry, debts, and accusations of disloyalty,
infidelity, and thievery.
 |
| Tony Sancho & Fidel Gomez |
Fidel Gomez and Tony Sancho are absolutely laugh-out-loud
hilarious as each respectively plays both the Mexican and the U.S. versions of
the twins, Antifolo de México and Antipholus of U.S.A. as well as Drómio de
México and Dromio of U.S.A. From our
standpoint, a baseball cap on the A’s and a knit cap on the D’s is all that
helps us keep the twins apart, with green for the Mexican brothers and blue for
the U.S.A. versions. When with the
brother each has known since birth, both sets of twins have similar ways of
joking, ribbing, and pounding on each other as brothers are wont to do – similar
enough so that when the brothers meet on the street the other half they have
never met prior, they continue the same brotherly antics with little notice of
something amiss. That is until the
Mexican halves begin naturally to spout forth in fluent Spanish – something the
U.S. Mexican-American halves have never taken the time to learn. That difference is just the beginning of the multiplying
signs obvious to us but still missing to them that there are more brothers of
theirs than just the two of them in this border town.
 |
| Fidel Gomez, Tony Sancho & Grant Ruiz |
Director Bill Rauch calls upon the traditions of the great
silent movie comedies; of Vaudeville; and of fifties TV/movie comedy greats
like Red Skeleton, Lucille Ball, and Jerry Lewis as he guides all the twins
through their misidentifications and even their normal, brotherly
back-and-forth picking on each other.
The smaller Dromios tend to be the real clowns as they fall, roll, or
scoot across the floor on their construction-ready knee-pads (that go along
with their belt of tools). The Dromios often feel the brunt of the larger A’s
punches and pushes (usually accompanied by a sound effect from another cast
member), especially as mixed Mexican/U.S.A. brothers encounter each other and one
of the A’s discovers one of the D’s does not have the money he gave him or has
brought a rope instead of a gold chain to him.
As the two Dromios, Tony Sanchez is particularly hilarious
as he often does a quick body roll to go from one D to the next, something
Fidel Gomez also must do when in the end when all four twins meet with only two
actors to accomplish the reunion.
Through it all and more, Bill Rauch finds innumerable ways to jack up
the number of laughs (including directing the hats/caps to take a life on their
own), never forgetting also to use the two languages as part of the fun as
brothers meet other brothers who all of a sudden know a language not known the
day before.
But the merriment is certainly not confined just to the four
bro’s. Amy Lizardo is magnificent as
Adriana, the strong-willed wife/esposa of Antipholus of U.S.A., taking no
excuses when her husband shows up who now suddenly speaks Spanish and acts like
he has no idea who she is nor why he should follow her into the house for dinner. Her range of emotional displays from
exploding anger to anguished hurt to tear-flowing worry is both impressive and
always funny (at least for us, if not for her or either of the A’s).
Equally strong is Caro Zeller as Luciana, the sister/hermana
of Andriana. She bursts with zealous
determination as she tries to bring the errant A’s and D’s back to their senses,
often looking like a mini-bulldozer as she moves in to push them in the
direction she believes they must go. But
when suddenly Antifolo of México starts making Romeo moves on her, Luciana
shudders from head-to-toe and slowly succumbs to the Spanish love-making in
words he floods upon her, only coming to her more rational senses just before
he scores a big kiss.
Joining in the fun for us but total confusion and
frustration for them is Angelo, a jeweler who only wants to deliver a gold
chain Antipholus of U.S.A. ordered and to collect his $500. At various points, Cedric Lamar gets to shine
forth in showing off his jocularity, struggling to collect from the wrong A
either his chain or his refund of money in a scene that looks like one from the
old Saturday morning cartoons many of us grew up watching.
 |
| Catherine Castellanos & Amy Lizardo |
Catherine Castellanos gets to play both ends of the spectrum
as first the rough-and-ready and quite sexy Barkeep owner of the Porcupine Bar
and second as the quite holy and formal Holy Mother Superior. In the latter role, she becomes the worker of
a miracle that very much involves herself, but only after more sidesplitting
antics where her moment of revelation can occur after she motions across the
room and the audience for a twin who is there to run over and to be the other
twin that she now must now have next to her.
Meme Garcia is an opinionated La Vecina, or neighbor, who feels
free to offer in very loud, assertive Spanish her spontaneous comments – often to
the stunned looks of her fellow thespians.
She also steps in to serve as an interpreter/narrator to ensure that
both Spanish and English speaking audience members understand some portion or
another of the story. (She is a comic dynamo
in her own regard, especially if one finds yourself sitting next to her in the
audience as did my husband and me.)
 |
| Mark Murphey & Armando Durán |
Called upon to play more serious parts – but ones that still
have their moments of twinkling humor – are Armando Durán as the apprehended
Egéon and Jeffrey King as the arresting Sheriff Solinus. Each puts a face, a personality, a
back-story, and a timely human dilemma on our nation’s current immigrant
issues.
Even with all the rolling, rollicking antics and humor, the
message of this La Comedia of Errors
comes across loud and clear, no matter which language audience members
understand. Those who have found
themselves, for whatever reason, on a different side of the border from where
they were born are still very much like all the rest of us. They are loving spouses, hard workers, lovers
of good times, parents, and children.
Their differences from any of the rest of us are much fewer than all our
similarities; and if we happen to have different colors of skin or speak
different languages, these are just surface differences. As this brilliant, bilingual farce so vividly
illustrates, there is always room for humanity to rise above politics and for
any Sheriff Solinus always to know that he and all of us have choices to make
how we receive, treat, and welcome our new neighbor from the South, one like
Egéon, a Mexican merchant just looking to reunite his family.
Rating: 4 E
La Comedia of Errors
continues through October 26, 2019 in either the Thomas Theatre or at various
other spots around Ashland as part of the 2019 Oregon Shakespeare
Festival. Tickets are available at www.osfashland.org.
Photos
by Jenny Graham
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