A Madcap Comedy of Errors

Hudson Valley Shakespeare rolls with the punchlines

Highbrow and lowbrow collide as history and pop culture are run through a blender in the production of The Comedy of Errors at Hudson Valley Shakespeare.

The play opens with a few notes of The Godfather theme, rewinds to the Big Band Era, then fast-forwards to 1950s rock ’n’ roll. There’s also a bawdy “Star-Spangled Banner” joke, another one associating “wee wee” with “yes yes” in French and three kick-line dance numbers.

“That’s the good thing about doing plays that have no copyright or family members alive — you can do anything you want,” says director Ryan Quinn.

Movement fuels the madcap mayhem: The opening scene unspools like a silent film that animates a long backstory monologue by Kurt Rhoads as Egeon. The actors sway on deck as their ship goes down, a segment choreographed by Susannah Millonzi and punctuated by Sean McNall running around in a gleaming-yellow fisherman’s bucket hat.

It’s funny to watch Zach Fine as the servant Dromio of Syracuse get chased. Or just stand and make strange faces, eat popcorn and shake his legs. After Fine’s scene-stealing appearance with the ribald French joke, national anthem quip and dose of Robin Williams, the audience on June 22 erupted with applause.

Quinn added a dash of Guys and Dolls: the more menacing characters and two female roles deliver the Bard’s words with faux Brooklyn accents. As Luciana, Helen Cespedes channels the renowned squeak of Adelaide from the 1950s play and Katie Hartke (Adriana) joins the fun as cases of mistaken identity erupt into chaos.

The flaw to Shakespeare’s logic is that each set of twins shares the same names. And, to keep the ruse going, they must be dressed in the same garb. 

Nonetheless, Luis Quintero (Antipholous of Syracuse), plays a low-key foil to Fine’s Dromio as a happy-go-lucky chap who finds himself in maddening situations. As the other brother, Antipholous of Ephesus, Anand Nagraj presents a blustering blowhard who amalgamates the Wicked Wolf and Ralph Kramden when the hijinks get out of hand.

The cast metes out more beatings than a Three Stooges film and Quinn leans into slap-schtick territory. At one point, cast members play-slap the entire audience and even the stage manager hurls water balloons at Antipholous of Ephesus. Tactful ad-libs, mostly from Cespedes, add to the playfulness and lack of pretense.

One of Shakespeare’s early works (circa 1594), with rhyming lines that sometimes flow like rap, The Comedy of Errors is funny not so much because of the words but in the situations. That means it’s up to the actors to put it over.

As written, the Dr. Pinch scene is staid, but McNall’s manic depiction of an exorcism elicited howls of laughter. After arriving in what looks like a moon buggy with two white-coated helpers in glittering goggles, he gesticulates wildly and unleashes otherworldly noises. Holy water is splashed about like kindergartners in a kiddie pool.

Beyond the funning and fighting, Quinn focuses on family. In one subtle, recurring gag, after the Syracusans are introduced, they walk up the hill behind the stage, and the servant Dromio tries to hold his master’s hand but is swatted away. 

The gimmick occurs a few more times, but at the end, both Dromios in near-identical costumes clasp hands with vigor as they exit stage rear, reunited. And it feels so good.

Hudson Valley Shakespeare is located at 2015 Route 9 in Philipstown. Tickets are $10 to $100 at hvshakespeare.org or at the door. The Comedy of Errors runs on select evenings through Aug. 2.