Friday, June 10, 2005

The Comedy of Errors - UGA

Interesting play. I don't particularly like Shakespeare and I don't particularly hate him either.. Although the more I see Shakespeare I see the more I like. I had never read or seen the Comedy of Errors before so I was on pretty much the same level as most of the audience and was a bit confused.
If you haven't seen it before, the play concerns two sets of twin brothers who don't know they are twins and end up being mistaken for each other, several times over the course of a few days. It is basically what the name implies.. a comedy of errors.
This particular production was a free one put on by a maymester drama class at UGA. It had virtually no set, and the costumes and props were all found pieces from the cast members closets. I found this a bit distracting in the beginning, but as I got into the play I actually liked this.
For the most part the acting was decent. Not particularly memorable (they were mostly underclassman and all undergrads for the most part doing their first Shakespeare play). There were a few obvious flubs. One girl kept forgetting parts of long speeches and would repeat them. And there was one character who was played by someone holding the script who had apparently gotten it five minutes earlier (but no one was missing from the cast.) The main characters for the most part did a good job. I was not bored, I was enthralled . I enjoyed it. There is one more performance (Saturday at 8pm) so if you are in Athens and you want some good free entertainment go see some of the young local talent at the cellar theater at UGA's Performing Arts School (appropriately located in the basement).

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