‘Comedy’: The Queen’s English, Brooklyn style

A-a-a-ay, Washington! The Folger Theatre and the Duke of Ephesus want that you should come to their new production of William Shakespeare’s “The Comedy of Errors,” which they have conveniently set in Brooklyn for your viewing pleasure. And if you think you have a conflict on your schedule, the Duke and his mafia pals are prepared to make you an offer you can’t refuse.

Come on; you people have been to college; you know the score here. Young Bill Shakespeare needs some money, fast. So he writes this hilarious play he knows people will love that’s all about screwed-up identities. Then he loads it with slapstick like the Three Stooges used to do.

OK. This rich guy Egeon and his wife have one set of twins and adopt this other set of lower-class twins. But half the twin sets get separated in a shipwreck as kids and grow up in different towns.

For some unknown reason, these two sets of twins share the same first names. So you have Antipholus of Syracuse and his dumb sidekick, Dromio of Syracuse, on one hand. And you get the local guy, Antipholus of Ephesus and Dromio of Ephesus on the other. Years later, they all wind up in Ephesus without knowing each other and immediately run into difficulties with the ladies, particularly since the ladies are sisters and one of them is married to the second Antipholus guy. Look, it sounds crazy, but this shtick has worked for centuries.

Anyhow, this D.C. director named Joe Banno, who says he’s “100 percent Sicilian” in the program, gets together with the Folger, and they decide to put this play in modern-day Brooklyn, put New York Italian accents on Shakespeare’s English, and dress up the actors like cheap floozies and two-bit hoods. People play “Godfather” music in the background, and sometimes actors explain the old jokes. You get sneaky references to stand-up comics and old TV shows. Hey, what a concept. You could take your kids.

About the cast: What can we say; they’re terrific. Chief among these are Clinton Brandhagen, who plays both Antipholus characters, and Eric Sutton, who plays both Dromios. Mr. Brandhagen works himself to death, portraying the Ephesus twin as a hard guy while his Syracuse Antipholus is really nice and without a clue.

Mr. Sutton’s Dromios are Dumb and Dumber. His Ephesus guy is like Jim Carrey but more out of control, while his Syracuse Dromio is a cross between Adam Sandler and Butt-head. He plays them both with the kind of Flying Karamazov Brothers energy and split-second comic timing that helps make this show a must-see.

And the ladies, they do a great job, too. Marni Penning plays put-upon wife Adriana like a real New York shrew, strutting around the stage in an outrageous Fran Drescher hairdo, with an accent to match. Erika Sheffer plays her sister Luciana a little closer to the vest as a plain-Jane Cinderella who can hold her own in a catfight.

The smaller roles are well-cast also, particularly Bill Hamlin’s imposing Duke, Michael Russotto’s quailing Egeon, and Cam Magee’s two-sided Abbess.

Modernizing Shakespeare isn’t usually our thing. And Shakespeare purists probably won’t like this at all. But this manic act of rehab is so nutty that it actually works.

So go buy a ticket, see?

*** 1/2

WHAT: William Shakespeare’s “The Comedy of Errors”

WHO: The Folger Theatre

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