Review: THE BOMB-ITTY OF ERRORS at Post5

Hip Hop Rap the Bard...Yo!

Frequently, as I've sauntered through life, strangers have asked me which I'd prefer, listening to rap or shoving a red hot poker into my left ear. Always I've gone for the poker.

But now, of course, I've seen the light. Or rather, heard the beat. And tapped and shook and shivered in my socks.

And you can credit opening night of Portland's Post5 Theatre and their production of THE BOMB-ITTY OF ERRORS for my forsaking forever the otic poker.

Four Portland based actors, Blake Stone, Anya Pearson, Melissa Whitney and Joel Patrick Durham blister the stage with Shakespeare's THE COMEDY OF ERRORS rapped to hip hop infinity. They've got the surly poses, the struts, the flying single fingers, the break dance moves as they deconstruct Big Will's endlessly complicated door slammer about two sets of twins. And they nailed the almost endless wonderfully witty words of the original BOMB-ITTY writers and performers, JAQ, GQ, Eric Weiner, Jason Catalano and Jordan Allen-Dutton.

This is a feast for actors with comedy chops and these four dig right in. Memorable characters: Joel Patrick Durham's horse loving cop, Melissa Whitney's Hassidic Jew and sports nun, Blake Stone's black hooker, Anya Pearson's bicycle messenger. And there are more, a lot more. Gender bending is de rigeur as are the somewhat wigs.

Sam Dinkowitz not only directed and wrote original music with DJ Enoch, he also designed the inspired costumes, sound and props. Tyler Busswell's three doored, balconied set with it's shrieking graffiti was far from Shakesperean but entirely right for anything called BOMB-ITTY.

Opening nights usually have their glitches and Post5's had a couple. A ninety minute show with an intermission, this BOMB-ITTY seemed to out run its welcome with false endings. And more importantly, the DJ beats drowned the rappers. Too many lines lost to the turntables. There were a few scenes when the actors provided the beats rather than the DJ and those scenes popped.

Carping aside, Post5's THE BOMB-ITTY OF ERRORS is a fun show, done well.

Photo L-R: Blake Stone, Anya Pearson, Joel Patrick Durham, Mellisa Whitney

THE BOMB-ITTY OF ERRORS runs through September 17 at Post5 Theatre, 1666 S.E. Lambert Street, Portland. 971.333.1758 www.post5theatre.org