Humber River Shakespeare Presents The Comedy of Errors, Tour Hits The Road

Although Shakespeare's The Comedy of Errors has been around for over 400 years and been adapted for opera, stage, screen and musical theatre - even using Star Trek costumes and props - you may not find another production quite like the one coming this summer to the GTA from the Humber River Shakespeare Company.

One of Shakespeare's earliest works and his only play with two sets of identical twins, The Comedy of Errors opens with the tale of a sad old man separated from his wife and one of his twin boys by both a shipwreck and his obsessive pursuit of wealth. The story continues when the son, now an adult, arrives in the same town as his long-lost, twin brother. At this point, tragedy quickly becomes farce, as servants mistake masters, doctors mistake patients and wives mistake husbands.

Artistic Director Kevin Hammond describes Humber River's production as a fast-paced comedy filled with seduction, arrest, infidelity, beatings, theft and general all-round madness. With elements of both farce and tragedy sharing the stage, the production becomes a comedic rollercoaster of mistaken identity with a countdown to the possibility of doom and death. Hammond likens it to the urgent ticking time bomb of TV drama 24 combined with the Bard's razor wit, poetry and penchant for happy endings.

"The farce is animated by the world in which the play is set," says Hammond. "It's full of magicians, cozeners and jugglers. It'll be like a travelling sideshow carnival."

Playing from July 6th to August 1st in open-air venues from Bolton to Aurora, Kleinburg and Toronto, Humber's The Comedy of Errors will enact a magical world unbound by the conventional "fourth wall" separating a theatre audience from the performers on stage.

"We don't play with a fourth wall," says Sara Moyle, both a principal performer and the Artistic Producer of Humber River Shakespeare. "Every production that we've done - whether indoors or out - has always been at audience level. Adding a carnival element to Errors gives us even more of an opportunity to be interactive."

So much so, in fact, that before, during and after the production, magicians, jugglers and pickpockets will mingle with the crowd and tarot readers will be available for life-altering prognostications. (Accuracy of fortunes not guaranteed!)

Creative thinking and a passion for Shakespeare is what drove co-founders Hammond and Moyle to create the Humber River Shakespeare Company in 2008. "Shakespeare's work embodies everything it means to be human," says Hammond. "Joy, revenge, sex, conquest, power, greed, larceny and lust. And then it's an incredibly rich experience for the audience when the plays are taken outdoors - in a place with no boundaries."

The pair first worked together on a production of Twelfth Night, touring along the Humber River from King Township to Vaughan and then Toronto. It's an experience they remember fondly.

"That first summer, we did the show on faith and dreams. We had no funding and only a few people who believed in what we were doing. We thought we'd just be a little summer company that would do a few projects and then move on." They realized it might be something more when people started to approach them after the performances to ask, "What can you bring us next?"

As a result, the Humber River Shakespeare Company has become somewhat of a tradition in every community where they've performed, and audience numbers last year increased 43%. But while they have dreams of a theatre they can call home, Moyle and Hammond are more than happy to keep their show on the road.

"What we'll always be about is going to communities that don't have professional theatre," Hammond says proudly. "It's the heart of what we do. To bring Shakespeare to people's backyard."

Humber River Shakespeare's The Comedy of Errors Summer Tour 2011:
July August

6 Dick's Dam Park, Bolton 1 Montgomery's Inn, Etobicoke
7 Dick's Dam Park, Bolton
8 Schomberg Fair Grounds
9 Schomberg Fair Grounds
10 Kettleby Village
12 The Barn, Seneca College, King Campus
13 King Museum
14 Bindertwine Park, Kleinburg
15 Alton Mill
16 Alton Mill
17 Town Park, Aurora
19 Humber Bay Shores, Toronto
20 Thorn Lodge Park, Mississauga
21 Thorn Lodge Park, Mississauga
22 Thorn Lodge Park, Mississauga
23 Etienne Brulé Park, Toronto
24 Montgomery's Inn, Etobicoke
27 Old Mill, Toronto
28 Old Mill, Toronto
29 Old Mill, Toronto
30 Montgomery's Inn, Etobicoke
31 Montgomery's Inn, Etobicoke

About Humber River Shakespeare:
Humber River Shakespeare is a professional outdoor theatre company that seeks to enrich the artistic profile of communities along the historic Humber River. HRS is a member of The Association of Summer Theatres 'Round Ontario (ASTRO). For more information, visit www.humberrivershakespeare.ca

 

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