The Comedy of Errors

Anyone who follows this section of the Hurley House blog knows I’ve been reading Shakespeare’s plays for the last few months. I’d started because I had re-watched Slings & Arrows. I have to say, I could watch that series over and over again. The more Shakespeare I read, the more references I get. And the more I get, the more emotional the show becomes for me. I mean, it’s a comedy, true, but I burst into tears at least once a season. Twice. More than that. OK, almost every time I’m watching them perform one of the plays well, I burst into tears.¹

So the first two plays I read were the featured plays for seasons one and three of the show: Hamlet and King Lear (I skipped Macbeth because I’d read it before, and I’m saving all the plays I’ve already read until last… you know, in case I die or something before I get through them all…). Then I read all the plays we had as Pelican Shakespeare editions, because those books are so easy and comfortable to read. Finally, I started reading from The Riverside Shakespeare,*< in chronological order (as listed in The Riverside). I just finished The Comedy of Errors. And I finally get who Cyril’s talking about when he sings “Either of the Dromioes” in the opening theme of the second season.

So in S&L, Geoffrey and Oliver hammer home the point about theater being that thing, that place, that asks the audience member to momentarily suspend her disbelief. Not like film or television, though. Film and television often don’t even come close to asking you to do that. They often create a completely alternate reality and place you in it. Often the unbelievable is believable in film an television. There often is no disbelief to start with. But the stage is different. Even if the effects are beyond terrific, it will still seem less real. You bring disbelief with you, but you’re asked to check it at the door. Consciously. And Geoffrey, anyway, seems to like it that way. So do I.

Take this play, for example. I read it, but haven’t seen it performed (yet). And while I was reading it, I was asked to suspend my disbelief:

A twin and his servant go searching for the twin’s long-lost brother and finally arrive in the country where the brother lives—wearing exactly the same clothing as the brother and his servant, who happens to be the twin’s servant’s twin—then they get caught up in all kinds of mistaken-identity confusion and silliness with the brother and his wife and sister-in-law, the servant’s twin and his mistress, a courtesan, merchants, an abbess, and the law.

Wowza.

Talk about suspension of disbelief. I did it, though, and it was really worth it. The play is delightful, and I can’t wait to see a performance of it.

It’s a short play… go read it.