Theater review | 'Comedy of Errors': Lusty humor in Shakespeare's comic romp

Reality is as we perceive it, and in "Comedy of Errors," perception is all wrong. Two sets of twins separated shortly after birth wind up in the same city. It's the silliest of all of Shakespeare's plays.

In GreenStage's production, the humor is reinforced by having men play women's roles and women play men's roles. It's farce! It's slapstick! It's preposterous! That is, if you can hear it.

The challenge for outdoor theater is making its actors heard — over airplane noise and whatever sounds of city life intrude upon the stage. So get there early and settle yourself close to the stage. You don't want to miss any part of this comic romp.

Of course, it's all about mistaken identity. What money? Whose wife? What home? This is lusty humor filled with innuendo. Director Ryan Higgins has clothed his actors in period costumes. The "women's" décolleté reveals clumps of black chest hair. Their wigs are often askew. The men have bosoms. And the physical humor is played to the hilt.

There's a duel with baguettes. There are graphic but decorous births. There are as many sight gags as there is wordplay.

Patrick Bentley is a standout as Adriana, the befuddled wife of one Antipholus, who mistakenly takes the other Antipholus to bed and board.

She and her sister Luciana, well played by Rio Codda, sashay around the stage, managing to be prim yet bawdy.

Michael D. Blum — the bereaved father searching these many years later for his lost son and his lithe wife — is master of the double take, especially when he finds the wife, played here by the mountain of a man Don MacEllis.

This is fun for young and old.

Nancy Worssam: nworssam@earthlink.net