There’s no counting the times theater people say they knew they wanted to become part of that world when at some point in their childhood they were taken to a theater performance. Who’s to say whether the Public Theater’s Mobile Unit — still operating this summer when the flagship Delacorte is closed for renovation – hasn’t already inspired youngsters from all over the City to choose theater as a career and might continue to do so?
Such inspiration is, of course, only one reason — an incipient love of Shakespeare is another — why the Mobile Unit is an invaluable civic asset. The Mobile Unit, in large part considering New York City a two-language town, makes a tradition of traveling the five boroughs and setting down for a few bilingual days in a convenient outdoor spot. This year the Mobile Unit has brushed off last summer’s 90-minute adaptation of perhaps William Shakespeare’s silliest opus, The Comedy of Errors.
Not only is it freed it from relatively recent mothballs but a few songs and, apparently, some other alterations to have been added to the mistaken-identity comedy. This is the one where distraught dad Egeon (Varín Ayala) has left his native Syracuse to seek sons Antipholus and their assistants, Dromio. Don’t ask why Egeon gave the missing twin scions the same name or why the missing obedient twin Dromios also have the same moniker. Only Shakespeare knows, and he’s too long gone to explain now.
[Read Michael Sommers’ ★★★☆☆ review here.]
It’s come to pass, however, that both Antipholuses — the Syracuse one and the Ephesus one — are in Ephesus at the same time. Needless to say, no end of trouble thunders on until it ends to everyone’s gratification and celebration. Such confusion involves, among other complications, a pouch of money given over to the wrong hands and a gold chain intended as a gift that hangs too long on the wrong neck.
Things are especially confounding for Antipholus’ wife (Danaya Esperanza) and for Luciana (Keren Lugo), her sister. They are intermittently confronted with the wrong Antipholus, who has no idea why they greet him so familiarly. The wrong Dromio also experiences head-scratching situations in the same fashion.
Usually in productions of The Comedy of Errors — which wasn’t particularly enjoyed by its first 1594 audience of law students — two actors (resembling each other, it’s hoped) – are cast as Antipholus and two (the same hope) as Dromio. One of this cheerful revival’s highlights is that one actor (Joél Acosta) plays the Antipholuses and another (Gían Pérez) the Dromios.
Which means that, as director Rebecca Martínez works it, the Antipholuses and Dromios often carry two hats so that when the brothers are together, they each wear one hat and quickly switch to the other hat and back again. The result is great fun, making the denouement a laugh riot. Special kudos to Acosta and Pérez for pulling off (literally) the terrific this-hat-that-hat-this-hat-that-hat stunt.
In addition to directing and choreographing, Martínez adapted and wrote lyrics with composer-lyricist-music-director Julián Mesri. As with Shakespeare’s poetry and prose, that aspect of the manuscript is spoken and sung in Spanish and English, with translations from Mesri. The songs are sprightly, one standout being a tango Adriana leads. Not surprisingly “amor” is the impetus for more than one tune.
The first stop on this year’s tour is Bryant Park, where I attended the initial performance and, more specifically, in a space immediately west of Fifth Avenue. Rows of seats surrounded three sides of a raised square stage. (Other open-air venues may have bleachers looking on a ground-level performing area.)
I bring this up as someone who has many times watched Shakespeare played in London’s new Globe, a replica of the original. For the first time, it occurred to me that all the Mobile Unit settings can boast elements of Shakespeare’s Globe. To begin with, performances are held in daylight as they were then. Furthermore, the actors who see the audience members clearly can play to them as if they are the equivalent of the Bard’s groundlings. Indeed, the players frequently quit the stage to roam among the patrons. How strange and wonderful it is that the Public Theater’s Mobile Unit offers a Shakespearean experience closer to the real thing than standard auditoriums do.
The outdoor area on that first performance included yet another delightfully spontaneous feature. As the ebullient cast intoned the final number, a police car blazing its siren sped by on Fifth Avenue. The note the siren sounded blended with the chord being sung. How miraculous, how marvelous!
The Comedy of Errors opened May 28, 2024, as part of the Public Theater’s Mobile Unit, presented at venues across the five boroughs through June 30. Tickets and information: publictheater.org
