COMEDY OF ERRORS
William Shakespeare
Directed by Rebecca Goodheart
Featuring:
Gracy Brown*, Terra Chaney, Benjamin Curns*, Tyler Felson, Matthew Iannantuoni, Keith Hale, Michael Jerome Johnson*, Manu Kumasi*, Kaia Monrow*, Tamika Pettway, KP Pawell*, Christopher Seiler*, Courtney Stewart*, Joni Weisfeld
* denotes Actors' Equity Association
Reviews:
Elm Shakespeare Serves Comedy, No Errors
by BRIAN SLATTERY | Aug 19, 2019
New Haven Independent
Seeing the Farce for the Trees
by E. KYLE MINOR | Aug 11, 2019
New Haven Register
Elm Shakespeare’s ‘Comedy of Errors’ a joyous, joke-based stroll in the park
by CHRISTOPHER ARNOTT | Aug 19, 2019
Hartford Courant
Elm Shakespeare Company returns to Edgerton Park this summer with one of Shakespeare’s wildest comedies, The Comedy of Errors.
Summer performances will run Thursday, Aug. 15 through Sunday, Sept. 1 in Edgerton Park, 75 Cliff Street, New Haven on Tuesday through Sunday at 8 p.m., with live music beginning at 7:30 p.m. The performances will be free to the public with a suggested donation of $20, and $10 for students and $5 for children 12 and under. Picnicking prior to the performance is encouraged and audiences should bring their own lawn chairs.
Celebrating its 24th season, Elm Shakespeare provides world-class theater, free of charge, to almost 30,000 audience members from throughout the greater New Haven area each August.
Elm Shakespeare Company’s 2019 production of The Comedy of Errors promises to be a wild rumpus of a play, a whimsical tale with two sets of identical twins, multiple cases of mistaken identity, witty wordplay, and riotous mishaps in a story of familial separation that is resonant for our times.
A Tale About Family Love
This production will be set in a fantastical world influenced by Dr. Seuss, highlighting the allegorical and fantastical world of the play with live music before and throughout the performance, transforming Edgerton Park into a party for all ages and tastes.
The Comedy of Errors is, at its heart, a tale about family love.
Egeon, a merchant from Syracusa, arrives in the rival nation of Ephesus searching for his son, who himself has gone in search of his long-lost twin brother. As the xenophobic Ephesians debate helping Egeon, the town erupts in confusion as (unbeknownst to anyone) his son arrives and both twin sons and their identical twin servants befuddle everyone. As the mistakes multiply, everyone’s fears about loneliness, infidelity, money, unwanted suitors, and even magical meddling emerge as the complexity of the world becomes seemingly insurmountable.
Real Stakes, Love Poetry
Director Rebecca Goodheart says, “The Comedy of Errors is so often underestimated, seen as no more than its delightful mix-ups and wacky fun, but it’s also more relevant than it first appears. It has real stories with real stakes and some of the most beautiful love poetry that Shakespeare wrote. It’s more than all its silliness, although there is a lot of silliness.”
This production will feature both local and national artists, including Southern Connecticut State University (SCSU) Theater Department Chair Kaia Monroe, professor Benjamin Curns, and master fight choreographer Michael Jerome Johnson. In residence at the university since 2016, the company employs a number of current and former SCSU students as actors and production staff including Cailey Harwood Smith as property master, James T. McLoughlin as sound designer, and actors Gracy Brown and Matt Iannantuoni. Costume Designer Rebecca Welles is both a SCSU and Yale School of Drama (YSD) alumna and is joined by YSD’s Izmir Ickbal, who is returning for his second season as set designer.
For more information, including a schedule of pre-show conversations called Tree Talks and protocol for cancellations due to inclement weather, visit www.elmshakespeare.org.