Acting Company serves up ‘Comedy” at ACT
THE BOYS FROM SYRACUSE: The Acting Company reunites two sets of mismatched twins in The Comedy of Errors at American Conservatory Theater. Photo by Veronica Slavin.
There is such joy in watching actors be actors! The sadly outdated notion of an acting company performing a variety of shows in rotating repertory offered a splendid opportunity to see actors shine in starring roles and make a meal of smaller parts, to rage at the gods in a drama one day and take pratfalls like circus clowns in a farce the next.
Happily, The Acting Company, founded by John Houseman and Margot Harley in 1972 and giving rise to actors such as Patti LuPone, Kevin Kline, Jeffrey Wright and Frances Conroy, is back on tour with a fantastic company with a rotating repertoire of two plays. With a stop at American Conservatory Theater, we’ve already been treated to their powerful production of August Wilson’s Two Trains Running (read my review here).
CH-CH-CHAIN, CHAIN OF FOOLS: Diana Coates in The Comedy of Errors at American Conservatory Theater. Photo by Veronica Slavin.
And now we have their second offering, a fresh spin on Shakespeare’s shortest, most farcical work, The Comedy of Errors. Playwright Christina Anderson has “translated” the play (from English into English) as part of the project known as Play On Shakespeare created by the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in 2015. The project commissioned 36 playwrights to bring all of Shakespeare’s plays into the 21st century to “enhance the understanding of Shakespeare’s plays in performance.”
Anderson’s adaptation of Comedy is certainly brisk, clocking in at about 90 minutes, and director Devin Brain keeps the staging – on the same 1960s diner set from Two Trains Running – lively if somewhat bewildering.
As much fun as the actors seem to be having letting loose and being absolutely silly, there’s never a cohesive concept to the evening, which begins with actors crawling out of the wall of the set and goofing around with slapsticks, which seem, in addition to making those satisfying slapping sounds, to conjure other actors and a whiff of a Shakespeare play.
Somehow the diner contains all of Ephesus, and the company plays multiple roles (not all of which are entirely clear). The cast list offers the actors as Clowns 1 through 9, and the actors certainly embrace the mantle of clown. The ensuing high jinks, in which two sets of mismatched twins unknowingly reunite in one town causing multiple (and maddening) cases of mistaken identity, is that everyone seems to be honoring a different brand of clowning or comic acting. There’s hamminess, broad physical shtick, corniness aplenty and an abundance of unconvincing buffoonery.
EVERY WHY HATH A WHEREFORE: James Milord is Antipholus of Syracuse and DeAnna Supplee is Adriana (with J’Laney Allen as Dromio of Syracuse hiding behind the coatrack) in The Comedy of Errors at American Conservatory Theater’s Toni Rembe Theater. Photo by Veronica Slavin.
Even at its best, The Comedy of Errors can be a tiresome farce, and this is not the show at its best. Even in a shortened version with modern lingo woven in, the mistaken identity plot wears thin fast. At least the musical version benefits from some wonderful Rodgers and Hart songs like “Falling in Love with Love,” “This Can’t Be Love” and “Sing for Your Supper.” This version could use a song or two.
The best thing about this production is Diana Coates, who does not appear in Two Trains Running. She dons a mustache to play Aegeon, father of the Antipholus twins, who is scouring the seven seas for his missing twins. Her recounting of how the family was separated in a terrible storm at sea is absolutely riveting. When the character reappears at the end of the show, he’s played by a different actor, and it’s a serious letdown.
Watching actors in rep, it’s thrilling to see them show different aspects of their talent, and I would say the MVP in this company is J’Laney Allen, who played Wolf, the numbers runner in Two Trains and here plays Dromio of Syracuse. He’s effortlessly funny and charming and still believable as someone trying to get a grip on an impossible situation.
This scattershot production could use more of the grounded, focused work of Allen and Coates.
FOR MORE INFORMATION
The Acting Company’s The Comedy of Errors translated by Christina Anderson continues in rotating repertory with August Wilson’s Two Trains Running through May 3 at American Conservatory Theater’s Toni Rembe Theater, 415 Geary St., San Francisco. Running time for Comedy of Errors: 90 minutes (no intermission). Tickets are $25-$130 (subject to change). Call 415-749-2228 or visit act-sf.org/comedy.
