Imagine this: you’re a married man who comes home for dinner, only to find that your wife has locked you out of the house. You knock on the door, but instead of your faithful servant, a stranger claiming to be your servant answers. He tells you to go away, and that your wife is inside with another man. Furious and confused, you demand to see your wife, but the stranger refuses to let you in, all the while mocking you with insults and jokes. You threaten to break down the door, but your friends hold you back. You wonder if you’re dreaming or if you’ve gone mad.
This experience may sound like a nightmare, but it is actually a scene from this year’s winter play, The Comedy of Errors, one of William Shakespeare’s earliest and shortest comedies, as well as one of his most absurd. The play follows the chaotic adventures of two sets of identical twins—Antipholus of Ephesus (Johnathan Wu), Dromio of Ephesus (Jerry Xu), Antipholus of Syracuse (Ugin Sun), and Dromio of Syracuse (Jackson Ranada O’ Mara)—who were separated at birth and would unknowingly cross paths in the same city. As they encounter each other’s friends and enemies, they experience a series of misunderstandings, confusions, and conflicts. Some of the amusing plotlines include the wife of Antipholus of Ephesus, Adriana (Keres Chen/Lauren Hom), locking her husband out of their house; a goldsmith (Lily Long) demanding payment for a chain he never delivered; and a doctor (Brandon Hsu) trying to exorcize a demon from a sane man.
Johnathan Wu, who plays one of the protagonists, describes his character Antipholus of Ephesus as “extremely unhinged.” “Half of my scenes involve me screaming at a door or my wife, or a random person and threatening to assault them,” Wu said.
Ms. Ilana Meredith, the drama teacher and winter play director selected The Comedy of Errors because it had been several years since South High had done a play by Shakespeare. “I feel like it’s good for everyone to experience Shakespeare at some point because his works can be very fun and interesting,” she said. Ms. Meredith found it especially important to feature the famous use of iambic pentameter and prose as they are both essential features of Shakespeare’s plays. Nonetheless, she assures audiences that the performance will be fairly simple to understand due to the easy-to-follow plot and physical aspects. “We’re performing it in a way that brings the words to life even if you’re not understanding every single word of it,” she said. Not all aspects of this play will follow tradition, however. Theater South’s adaptation takes some creative liberties with the setting, which will be reinterpreted as 1980s United States—a creative way of blending the old with the new, and a testament to Shakespeare’s timelessness.
The Comedy of Errors will be performed from February 8 through 10 at 7:00 p.m., with an additional matinee on Saturday, February 10:00 at 2 p.m. If you are looking for a laugh-out-loud comedy that will make you forget about all your troubles, look no further. You won’t regret it, unless you end up in the wrong seat, next to the wrong person, with the wrong ticket. But don’t worry—that’s all a part of the comedy of errors.
