Playing Shakespeare is art but it is also craft, and there's no better way to learn both aspects than by studying and rehearsing under the guidance of a knowledgeable teacher. Austin Shakespeare's The Comedy of Errors illustrates that dictum and provides fine summer evening delights at the Curtain Theatre.
The lively young company has been forced by the unusually brutal heat to cancel two afternoon matinees -- both Saturday and Sunday. But don't hesitate to drive the very short distance to the Curtain, located lakeside just west of the 360 bridge, for the evening performances that remain. Last Thursday was equally hot during the day, but as promised by Alex Alford to KEYE-TV, the 8 p.m. performance was cooled by breezes from the water.
This is sprightly Shakespeare, an early work that trades on confusions of identity, separated families, married love and budding romance. There's lots of jesting and farce. The production moves quickly, arriving at its happy ending in just about 2 hours, including the intermission. The young players take visible delight in the action, and we in the audience share fully that pleasure.
Austin Shakespeare Launches the Young Shakespeare Program with its first production
The Comedy of Errors
at Richard Garriott’s Curtain Theatre, City Park Road June 25 - 28 8:00pm Thursday – Saturday Saturday matinée at 2:30 pm, Sunday matinée at 1:00 pm Tickets at www.nowplayingaustin.com $15 adults / $10 under 18 at the door
The classic comic caper of double twins and doubting wives stars an all-teen cast including Rosalind Faires as Emilia, Savannah Finger as Dromio of Ephesus, Ciara Flynn playing Adriana, Dillon Marrs playing Balthasar and Officer, Katie Pocock as Luciana, and Dallas Emerson as Antipholus of Syracuse.
Young Shakespeare offers students ages 11 to 18 intensive Shakespeare training as they run and perform in a professional production. The director is Matt Radford, a professional actor in the UK for fifteen years who is currently studying for his Ph.D. in Renaissance Drama at UT.
"The Comedy of Errors will transport audiences from the idyllic shores of Lake Austin to the dockside of exotic and disreputable Ephesus,” comments Director Matt Radford. “To the Elizabethans, the port of Ephesus in the eastern Mediterranean had biblical associations with sorcery and double-dealing, but was also home to the Temple of Diana, one of the seven wonders of the world, a place of uneasy enchantment in which travelers might lose not only their wallets but their very identities.”
Costume designer Glenda Barnes dresses the young cast in spirited 1940s-inspired costumes: men in trousers that sit on the waist, women in heels, and everyone in stylish hats. Jean Cannon, English Ph.D. graduate at UT and milliner extraordinaire, creates gorgeous headwear for the entire cast. Michael McKelvey, recent winner of Best Director and Conspicuous Versatility at the Critics Table Awards, lends his musical talents to create music and effects that combine jazz and Latin swing.
The Comedy of Errors is underwritten by generous grants from Bill Dickson and The Austin Community Foundation.
Austin Shakespeare is a member of the Austin Circle of Theatres, and is funded in part by the City of Austin through The Cultural Arts Division and by a grant from the Texas Commission on the Arts.
