Category: comedy

Some quick hits on names in the play:
Continue reading “What’s in a name: that which we call a Porpentine by any other name would smell as musky…”

Some quick hits on locales in the play…
Continue reading “Location, Location, Location”

Hola, amigos…

I’m in the process of doing the deep-digging reading, and I’ve found one section I definitely want to discuss:

Act Two, Scene Two, following the entrance of Adriana and Luciana (around line 108).
Continue reading “Flash-Forward to the Future”

Act Five’s single scene brings all together.  The scene begins with Angelo and his creditor discussing the situation again.  AS and DS arrive, and after some confusion, the creditor draws his sword to arrest then and get the money owed to him.  AS and DS escape to sanctuary in the Priory (Abbey).  The Abbess comes out to see what is going on, and she questions the newly arrived Adriana on the social aspects of AS’s state… her initial finding is that Adriana is to blame: “The venom clamors of a jealous woman / Poisons more deadly than a mad dog’s tooth” (V.i.69-70), but she exits to tend to his madness with “wholesome syrups, drugs and holy prayers” (V.i.104).  Upon her exit, the Duke arrives with Egeon to oversee the Syracusian merchant’s execution.
Continue reading “Act Five: Hey, Abbott (er, make that Abbess)!”

It’s been a wonderful holiday weekend, and while I wasn’t able to read all of Act Three on Friday (before the Macbeth performance), I was able to write a Mac review on Saturday, and read the remainder of Act Three and the totality of Act Four at the beach on Sunday… thank goodness for a short play!

So where were we? … ah, yes.  The Comedy of Errors: Act Three, Scene Two.
Continue reading “Antipholus on the Make”

Didn’t finish Act Three yesterday.

A day off got in the way, as did last night’s trip to Thousand Oaks to see the Kingsmen Shakespeare Festival‘s production of Macbeth at Cal Lutheran University… it was great to spend some time with great friends and great drama under the stars.  The production was very good, the lead excellent, and the experience great… I’m planning a review as a podcast.  If I can get off my butt and write it today, I’ll record and release it tomorrow (but today’s holiday may get in the way!).

But Act Three, Scene One…
Continue reading “Act Three, Scene One: Found– one Antipholus of Ephesus”

OK, Act Two is in the books… another short one, again, only two scenes.

In II.1, we meet Adriana, the wife of Antipholus of Ephesus (AE), and Luciana, her sister.

Any bets Antipholus of Syracuse (AS) ends up with the sister of his long lost brother’s wife? No takers?  Really?

Continue reading “Act Two: the Where’s Waldo, er, Antipholus of Ephesus? Edition”

OK, finished Act One last night… very short act, two scenes.

Of course, this is a very short play… by my count (and for my count, I’m using the Pelican Shakespeare, edited by Frances, E Dolan… and I plan to use the Pelicans for the entire series, just to be consistent), Comedy has 1766 lines, the least of any Shakespeare play.  (to put this in perspective, the character [not the play, but just the character] of Hamlet has over 1550 lines himself alone…)
Continue reading “Act One, and some quick thoughts… like “long lost, oh, brother””

And so we begin… 36 plays in 36 months…

And The Comedy of Errors begins with Egeon, pleading to the Duke of Ephesus:

Proceed, Solinus, to procure my fall
And by the doom of death end woes and all.

— I.i.1-2

He’s not pleading for his life, but for his death, a death to “end woes and all.”

THIS is a comedy?