The Comedy of Errors at the Colorado Shakespeare Festival

Erin Rachel Kaplan (U. of Colorado, Boulder)

The Comedy of Errors
The Colorado Shakespeare Festival
Directed by Geoffrey Kent
Set design by Caitlin Ayer
Lighting design by Shannon McKinney
Music by Alicia Baker

Opening night of the 2016 Colorado Shakespeare Festival’s The Comedy of Errors was a sight to behold—the audience, sitting under a clear blue Colorado sky, was jittery with excitement and all buzzing about the same question: “they cast the men as women?”

Geoffrey Kent’s production of the play, set joyfully in Paris in the 1930s, did more than merely stage the beloved play; it asked an important question about the role of women on stage and forced the audience to answer a question pertinent to our current cultural milieu—can women be funny—with a resounding, “Yes!”

Kent’s production sought to challenge the audience’s perception of women on stage by reversing the sexes of the main characters: The Dromios become Dromias, the Antipholuses become Antipholas, and the maligned and dejected Adriana and her sister Luciana become the brothers Adriano and Luciano.  Dramaturg Bianca Gordon asks the audience in her program note, “How does the comedy change with women in the roles?  How might this disrupt sexist narratives around women and comedy, and what is gained in the change?”

These questions get at what I believe was the heart of this energetic production.  Normally, it wouldn’t be a…