Vermont Repertory Theatre Presents Shakespeare's THE COMEDY OF ERRORS

Where would someone see A Doll's House, Part 1 around here? You know the prequel ... by Henrik Ibsen? Vermont Repertory Theatre, co-founded by West End director, Michael Fidler, and Vermont native Connor Kendall, looks to offer the answer. Fidler was describing a Burlington production of A Doll's House, Part 2 by Lucas Hnath (Vermont Stage, 2019) when the question first arose, and no one has given him a satisfactory answer since.

Contemporary theatre has an increasing fascination with deconstructing or responding to plays that are rightly considered classics. But wouldn't the audience benefit from having a place where they can see true-to-text productions of the very plays modern theatre is reacting to?

Fidler and Kendall certainly think so, and it was with that idea that Vermont Repertory Theatre came into being.

"We're committed to making established plays accessible and entertaining to a modern audience," says Kendall, who has returned to his home turf following stints in the theatre circles of New York and Chicago. "We're going to produce high quality shows in a way that preserves the original text and remains faithful to the intentions of the playwrights of the past."

"They are classics for a reason," adds Fidler, who cut his theatrical teeth touring Shakespeare plays the length and breadth of the UK. "Whether or not they are still relevant is something each generation should decide for themselves. Vermont should have a place where audiences can come to make that choice."

If this is starting to sound like a homework assignment from your high school English class, don't worry! Fidler and Kendall aren't only interested in the literary titans of the past's heavy works. The first production for their new company? William Shakespeare's The Comedy of Errors.

At barely two hours, it is Shakespeare's first and shortest play, and what it lacks in length, it makes up for in color and energy. It's a harum-scarum farce, full of mistaken identities, frenzied physical comedy and larger than life characters - all set in a fantasy town that comes straight out of Arabian Nights. "The audience is going to love it. It's probably got more in common with Tom and Jerry than most people's idea of Hamlet," says Fidler, who will direct the piece. His stated ambition...that people leave with great big smiles on their faces, saying 'Wow! I had no idea a Shakespeare play could be that hilarious - I understood everything!'"

"We knew we wanted to start with a comedy," says Kendall. "We thought people might already be familiar with Midsummer or Twelfth Night and that it would be more exciting to start with something new, something really fun."

"Elizabethans weren't interested in going to a theatre to be bored by endless philosophizing about the meaning of life," adds Fidler with a grin. "They demanded entertainment. And if they didn't get it, they chucked cabbages at the stage. The idea that Shakespeare is somehow not accessible to modern audiences - particularly kids - is utter rubbish, and it's a concept we'd very much like to be a part of changing."

Their first production might just do that.

The Comedy of Errors will be presented at the Isham Barn Theatre as part of the First Earth Summer Series 2023, from May 25-27th. Information at www.vermontrep.com.

Auditions for Vermont Repertory Theatre's production of The Comedy of Errors will take place March 15-18 at Fusion 802 in South Burlington.

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