Comedy of Errors: I love Skittles

Comedy of Errors
Annapolis Shakespeare Company - Bowie, Maryland
August 9, 2012

Chelsea - !?!
Brad - B

I've always loved skittles.  They are a delicious candy.  As a kid, my Poppy would take me to the bean-bean store and treat me to a bag of skittles.  Those days were the best.  What do skittles have to do with the Comedy of Errors? Well, the skittles Chelsea and I got at intermission were the best part of this production.

The Play:  Antipholus of Ephesus and Dromio of Ephesus arrive in Syracuse.  Dromio is Antipholus's servant.  Unbeknownst to them, Syracuse is home to Antipholus of Syracuse and Dromio of Syracuse.  The two Antipholi and the two Dromios are actually two sets of identical twins separated at birth!  So, now you've got two sets of people that look identical wandering around the same small city, a city who thinks there is only one Antipholus and one Dromio.  So, throughout the course of the play, merchants, wives, and mistresses all assume they are talking to Antipholus of Syracuse when they are actually talking to Antipholus of Ephesus.  At the end of the play, it turns out Antipholi's parents are also both in Syracuse.   The last scene is one huge family reunion. Very sweet.

The Production:  The director made the choice to make this a slapstick comedy.  So, there was a lot of physical humor ---  slapping, kicking, nose-honking, etc.  And every time --- every time --- one character hit another character --- which happened seemingly three times a minute --- a woman sitting on stage would honk a horn.  And every time --- every time --- one character kicked another character --- which happened seemingly three times a minute --- a woman sitting on stage would ring a bell.  So, every time there was physical humor, there was a corresponding sound effect.  FOR TWO COMPLETE HOURS!  In addition, there was time travel --- which was never fully explained --- Rocky Horror Picture Show-esque costumes, and dance numbers.

In the brief moments between slaps and sound effects, some of the actors did a good job.

This was the first production we've seriously considered leaving at intermission.  And that is saying something considering we've seen some rough shows.  Mama said, "if you have nothing nice to say, don't say anything." With that in mind the nicest thing I can say about this production is, man, those skittles were good!

Brad of Ephesus

Seriously????

Can you just take a hot second to look to the right on this blog. We have seen TWENTY NINE plays in 10 month. I know this is embarrassing but heck yeah we rock!!! Also, we are behind on the posts but  we're working on it.

Right now I feel like this:

Yeah!!

Love's Labour's Lost - why talent knows no age!

Love's Labour's Lost
Camp Shakespeare - Washington, DC
July 10th, 2012

Brad - A
Chelsea - A

Ok, so we should start by saying this is a super sad comedy and I had a swollen face so the play and my well being day of are not why I gave this an A, it is solely based on how awesome a bunch of high schoolers pulled off a Shakespeare play so I hope that says something, clearly I do not give A's willy nilly!

But, about the play: This is a comedy set in the Kingdom of Navarre. The king and his 3 bros decide they are going to devote themselves to 3 years of study and not allow any women to distract them. So they sign a law saying they cannot be in the company of women for 3 years, very he-man-woman-haters-club-esque. Right after they sign this lo and behold a princess and her 3 gals come to visit the kingdom! The king makes them stay in a tent outside of the kingdom walls. Clearly they all met, pair up and fall instantly in love! There is also a side plot about a Spanish swordsman who is trying to woo on of the ladies in town which is super funny. All of this culminates with the Spanish man, the king, and his noblemen putting on a play for the ladies, dressing up like Germans to spy on them and dancing. All quite strange and funny. BUT! The end takes a super sad twist. Spoiler alert - at the end the princess hears that he father has died and she must immediately return home with her ladies. All of the men vow to wait for them and the woman say that to test their love they must wait a year and day before coming for them. So, the ladies take off and the men wait heartbroken - hence Love's Labour's Lost. Sad ending!!

The seeing of this play was a bit eventful. The day before I had a dentist appointment. The regular good old fashion cleaning kind but I had some sort of allergic reaction to the fluoride and my whole mouth swelled up for 3 days. It was awful and I felt like a chipmunk but it did make my lips very lovely!

Brad called the next day and said "hey wanna see high schoolers attempt Shakespeare?" I did not, but by golly I will finish this project! So, we went. It was actually super wonderful! The actors were great! Clearly, we saw some high quality, as you can see this was the ADVANCED class!

They were great! I think one of the defining characteristics we have seen between good and bad Shakespeare has been the actors knowing what they are saying. If they get what the words mean they usually say it like one human being would talk to another. If not, they get all arm flinging, britishy, and stale. These actors knew what they were saying and they committed to their roles. Our favorite was the Spanish swordsman, he had a drawn on mustache  and open shirt to reveal...no chest hair but he owned it! He was hilarious and not overboard. For the fact that we have seen an insane amount Shakespeare done by people who are paid to do this for a living and people with way more experience this play held it's own among them.

I was really impressed. I even braved my face embarrassment to tell the director how great it was. I pretty sure he thought I had had a stroke recently.

Chelsea