THE COMEDY OF ERRORS
Shakespeare Tavern
through January 28, 2018

With all the news going on these days about legalizing marijuana, it may make one think of Sherlock smoking opiates, and/or possibly the Bard getting high to pen this opus. After all, they did have quite a garden in Warwickshire.

This is a show of insanity, presented by a bunch of weirdos, played by a cast of terrific actors. A merchant from Syracuse (Steve Hudson) is under arrest in Ephesus and trying to get up enough ducats to avoid execution.

The merchant came there in search of some of his twin sons who he lost at sea years prior. And that’s when things get even stranger. The twins grew up in different lands. One of them is Antipholus (Andrew Houchins) and his slave is named Dromio (J.L.Reed). The twin brother is same name but from the other town, played by Charlie T. Thomas,, and he has a slave who just happens to be same name as the other one, played by Adam King.

Things get nuttier when a gold chain is handed over to the wrong twin and the other one won’t pay the merchant for it because he never got it. Duh! Things get even more intense when one of the women begs to have her alleged husband removed from a safe abbey and turned over to her custody. It is the Abbess (Gina Rickicki) who gets things in alignment; and as one may expect, everything does come out all right in the end. The two Dromios even leave the stage arm in arm, as they are also twins.

The cast of a dozen players do their very best to make things as screwy as possible, and directed by Jaclyn Hofmann, they do a fine job of sucking us down into the black hole of the story. One might wonder how the poor peasants back in Shakespeare’s days could figure out what was going on, as they stood in place for 2+ hours.

The tavern offers pub grub, has easy seating and is easy to get to. Park across the street in the hospital garage and when you check out, show them a ticket stub and they charge only $4. Not bad for downtown Atlanta. More info and tickets at ShakespeareTavern.com