Stage Reviews : ‘A Comedy of Errors’ as Open-Air Shakespeare

A can of beans (or some other nonperishable food item for the poor) is the only admission charge for the Shakespeare Festival/LA production of “The Comedy of Errors” on the top level of Citicorp Plaza/Seventh Market Place. They will even validate your parking ticket.

A good deal, and it was pleasant to sit under the canopy on Sunday afternoon and watch Kevin Kelley’s young actors bounce through Shakespeare’s comedy. It was also pleasant to see how much the audience enjoyed the show. After 400 years, this play still works.

But there were problems. Outdoor productions in the heart of the city have to compete with the whoosh of traffic, even on a Sunday afternoon. They need a strongly focused set and actors who can make an audience listen up. See any production in the parks by the San Francisco Mime Troupe.

Here we had a weak-margined set (by Fred Duer) and actors who trusted that the microphones taped to the plaza floor would pick up their lines. Sometimes they did, sometimes they didn’t.

So it took a bit more pretending than usual to imagine ourselves in the city of Ephesus, watching two sets of identical twins run around confusing their creditors.

It did help that Jim and John Harnagel, as the two Dromios, actually are twins. (William Martin Burns and Robert Pescovitz, the two Antipholi, are not.) But the only actor who made me, personally, listen up was Mimi Cozzens, as the Abbess who straightens things out at the end. Yes, sister.

Director Kelley turns Ephesus into New Orleans at Mardi Gras. Good idea. The actors can dress as flappers or pirates (Patty White-lock did the costumes), and Dr. Pinch can do gris-gris instead of alchemy. (Rif Hutton plays him.)

It also allows for a Dixieland band, which turns out to be on tape. For a can of beans, you can’t complain.

Plays at Citicorp Plaza/Seventh Market Place, 725 S. Figueroa St., Saturdays and Sundays at 3:30. Closes Sept. 4. Admission: Non-perishable essentials to benefit the needy; (213) 489-1121.

‘THE COMEDY OF ERRORS’

Shakespeare’s comedy, presented by the Shakespeare Festival/LA, sponsored by Citicorp Citibank. Festival artistic director Ben Donenberg. Director Kevin Kelley. Costumes Patty Whitelock. Set Fred Duer. Music Nathan Wang. Makeup and hair styles Sugano. Technical director Michael Donovan. Stage manager Art Brickman. Assistant to the director Cindy Friedl. Speech consultant Carla Meyer. Sound design Sound Techniques. Cast Jacqueline Antaramian, William Martin Burns, Scott Clevenger, Mimi Cozzens, Stephen Engle, Jim Harnagel, John Harnagel, Susan Hegarty, Amy Hill, Rif Hutton, Lisa Kaminir, Lawrence Lott, Joseph G. Medalis, Robert C. Oram, Robert Pescovitz, Ray Rodgers, Cindy Friedl, Brendan Stofflet and Danielle Villicana.