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For any Shakespeare geek residing in Central Texas, we can imagine no greater treat than to watch one of his plays performed on the “wooden O” that is The Curtain Theatre. Richard Garriott’s Elizabethan replica space is nestled on his property on the shores of Lake Austin and provided the backdrop for Austin Shakespeare’s inaugural Young Shakespeare production of The Comedy of Errors this past weekend. The all-teen cast delivered a solid performance that was pleasantly surprising in many ways.
Comedy is one of the earlier texts written in the classical style of Roman farce. One of those late great critics of Shakespeare (some guy named Coleridge) said, “Farce commences in a postulate which must be granted.” In Errors, we have to accept that two sets of identical male twins have been separated at birth and raised as master and servant pairs. Many years later, in search of his brother, Antipholus and Dromio of Syracuse arrive in Ephesus where the corresponding Antipholus and Dromio live. Then, as they say, comedy ensues. In order to enjoy the show, we have to concede that however improbable this scenario, it is not impossible.
There are some that tend to regard farce as one of the lowest forms of comedy, relying as it does on sight gags, crude humor, and lots of slamming doors. The reality is that farce requires immense concentration, exact timing, vocal dexterity, and creativity. Given those criteria, one might assume (or postulate if we can use that term again) that it is improbable that a young cast of actors could perform such material with the same success as a group of seasoned performers. We are happy to report that they would be wrong.
There are, of course, jokes, gags, and laughs aplenty, but the thing that impressed us most was how vocally strong the cast was. This is an open-air space, and unaided by mics, we lost very few lines of text. They also really highlighted the verse and wordplay in this text, an area where many adult actors fall short. We got to savor these lines along with the performers, and what a treat! The one area where the cast came up a bit short was exploring the deeper emotional side of this play. We so reveled in the language, this feels like a trifling remark. The characters were certainly rooted in the text, they just did not experience much growth throughout the evening. We know that farce relies on stock characters, but even this early in his career, Shakespeare reveals his great humanity, and there was just a little too much stock and not enough stuff going on. The exception to this was Savannah Finger’s Dromio of Ephesus-her turn as the heavily beaten servant was nicely nuanced. That said, there was much to be liked in the cast. Georgia McLeland (the other Dromio) could best be described as a pinball, always in motion. Ciara Flynn was a beautiful and imperious Adriana. As the Antipholus brothers, Dallas Emerson and Reide Hale anchored the show despite being constantly misapprehended.
Not to pun too much on two, but most people in the show pulled double duty. Director Matt Radford also designed the set (and played some mean maracas). The stage was, in effect, the dockside of Ephesus, complete with old tire boat bumpers, plastic seagulls, and a lot of fishnet. It was a bit campy but seemed to fit the energy of the play quite well. Costume designer Glenda Barnes, who also played clarinet in the band, gave us a great rendition of the twins, just enough alike to suggest the relationships. Assistant Director, David Boss, earned maybe the best laugh of the evening as Loose Nell. Clearly, the success of this show was achieved by group effort.
We are really glad to see this kind of immersion program happening in Austin. Particularly with access to The Curtain, Young Shakespeare provides a truly unique experience for Austin teens to delve into performance, learning from veterans but also from each other. Let us be emphatic: this is not a camp, this is theatre. Radford expected that these teens would be treated and expected to behave as professionals, and the result was clean, thoughtful, and entertaining production of one of Shakespeare’s lesser-performed plays.
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