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Wednesday, Dec. 28: Comedy of Errors, friends

We got to the Shakespeare theater about 11:40, thinking "The Comedy of Errors" was at noon, but it turned out to be at 2. So we wandered about Chinatown a bit, poked our noses into the MCI center, had lunch at Jalejo, walked through the Navy memorial, and visited the bead museum--a cute little museum with exhibits, library, and gift shop all crammed into one room.

The play was fun. The amplification was a little weird--most of it was unamplified, so the occasional amplification called attention to itself in odd ways. ("Where's that coming from?" I'd think; "is it live or pre-recorded?") For me, the definitive performance of The Comedy of Errors is the version done by the Karamazov brothers in the late 80's, which overflows with silly jokes and stunts. I've watched our tape of their Live at Lincoln Center broadcast so many times I feel like I have it memorized. So inevitably I'm caught up short when some line of Shakespeare isn't followed up by the Karamazov joke that I expect. And I still don't think this version could compete with that one for shear fun. But they had some interesting ideas--a few odd broadway-like songs, some wild sets, including a bit of odd fake topiary and a dali-like clock, and an odd comic treatment of the asides, where the other players would freeze and then be surprised to find the speaker in a different location at the end of the aside.

The play ended up with just enough time for a quick walk through the Natural History museum before hopping on the metro to Silver Spring to meet my high-school friends Darren and Evan at a local Starbucks. I got a heavy liquid chocolate drink there, then we went to a Thai place, where we had fun catching up.

My dad gave us a ride home, then we looked at Hawaii photos and stuff.

Comments

Hi there,
I've been looking for a copy of the Live at Lincoln Center, Comedy of Errors for years. I see you mention you have a tape of it? Could you tell me where to get a copy? I would be eternally grateful.

Thanks for your time

Paul

chocolate@bramosia.com