The Canon Shakespeare Company to Stage THE COMEDY OF ERRORS

The Canon Shakespeare Company is proud to present its production of THE COMEDY OF ERRORS at Portland's Twilight Theatre, from April 29 through May 8. This beloved Shakespeare comedy will lean into the inherent absurdity and slapstick comedy of the original, including featuring two pairs of twins that look nothing alike. Advance tickets ($12-$15) are available at https://app.arts-people.com/index.php?preseason=ttco or can be purchased at the door, subject to availability.

Two sets of twins - quite un-alike in dignity but very alike in name - find themselves in the same city on the same day, forcing everyone to figure out the hard way who is who, in one of the Bard's earliest, shortest, and most farcical plays. Rather than attempting to cast actors who look alike, or using masks to simulate identical features, The Canon has chosen to cast actors who look completely different.

"Pairs of identical twins, born on the same day, given identical names, unknowingly and coincidentally reuniting decades later is an absurd premise to begin with," explains The Canon Shakespeare Company's co-founder Alec Henneberger, who also adapted the script. "So rather than fighting it, we thought it would be more fun to embrace the absurdity and invite both audiences and actors to immerse themselves in this comedy without worrying about the logic of it."

This production takes its inspiration from vaudeville comedy of the 1920s: slapstick and physical comedy from the likes of Laurel and Hardy, Buster Keaton, Fred Allen, The Three Stooges, Charlie Chaplin, and others.

THE COMEDY OF ERRORS features Kati Dery as Antipholus of Syracuse, Sean Christopher Franson as Dromio of Syracuse, Carl Dahlquist as Antipholus of Ephesus, and Genevieve Larson as Dromio of Ephesus. Supporting cast includes Karen Huckfeldt Schlecht as Antipholus's wife Adriana, Kari Warfield as Adriana's sister Luciana, Stephanie Crowley as the goldsmith Angelo, Ira Kortum as Egeon, Luce, Dr. Pinch, and Second Merchant, and Brent McMorris as Merchant, the Courtesan, the Officer, and the Abbess. The Duke will be played by "special guest stars." Alec Henneberger directs.

The Canon Shakespeare Company was founded to enrich, educate, and entertain the community through any and all things Shakespeare. The company believes that Shakespeare's works can unite communities with their celebration of humanity in all its forms, and by connecting people with stories everyone can relate to. The company's inaugural production of Hamlet was performed in Portland, OR in January of 2020; in the March lockdown of that year, the company created a weekly, Zoom-based Shakespeare Script Reading Group for actors and non-actors alike to read through Shakespeare plays online. As of this press release, the Script Reading Group has read every play in the canon (some several times) and has begun exploring other classic and "Shakespeare-adjacent" works. Most recently the company unveiled "Titus Andarnicus: A Sock Puppet Play," a 90-minute video of Shakespeare's bloodiest revenge tragedy as performed by sock puppets. More information is available at www.CanonPDX.org.

Pictured: (left-right) Adriana (Karen Huckfeldt Schlecht) tries in vain to get The Abbess (Brent McMorris) to release her husband.

Photo Credits: Courtesy of the Canon Shakespeare Company.

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