Ghost Light Monday--The Comedy of Errors

Today's "dark" day is about a non-musical theater production I attended. Chicago Shakespeare Theatre has been around for about 20 years and has grown not only into one of the biggest theater companies in Chicago, but has become an actual Chicago institution.

This past week, I attended their production of Comedy of Errors. Dare I say, this is not one of the great plays in the canon. But the concept of the CST production is great. Barbara Gaines, who is the Artistic Director for the theater, directed this production, and with the help of playwright Ron West has created a play-outside-a-play to frame Shakespeare's original.

The story for the frame takes place at the Shepperton Studios outside London in 1940. A troupe of British actors and one American crooner have gathered to make a film of Comedy of Errors.

In a newly written scene in Act One, we are introduced to the cast of actors, technicians and the director who are bringing to life the cast of characters in Comedy of Errors. Included are the aging director, who is married to his leading lady--a Vivien Leigh-type; a swashbuckling leading man; the leading man of the last generation, who is having difficulty handing the reigns to his successor; the underappreciated mousy production secretary; the bedraggled props assistant; and the put-upon dresser of the leading lady. Each brings their own gripes and quirks to the production, and when we see them enacting their roles in the play proper, those quirks come out in hysterical ways.

If you've seen Noises Off, the musical Kiss Me Kate, or Kenneth Branagh's film A Midwinter's Tale, you've seen this concept in use. Here, it works brilliantly to add an additional layer of humor to Errors.

There even was some music in the show, as one of the actors in the Shepperton troupe is an American singer a la Frank Sinatra. Beside acting in the film, he is providing the songs for the sound track and the audience gets to hear him sing two numbers of the 40s era being "recorded."

But the real treat today was seeing a new take on an old play that didn't rob the original of it's worth, but rather celebrated that original. There have been many productions of Shakespeare that move the action to another time, or another place. They have often felt like putting a new veneer on an old cabinet. But this production put a lovely new case around the old cabinet, protecting it and showing it off in a new light.

Comedy of Errors
By William Shakepeare
Additional scenes by Ron West
Directed by Barbara Gaines
Chicago Shakespeare Theater
Sorry, this production closed June 29.