Old Globe’s high-octane ‘Comedy of Errors’ a enjoyable ’90s throwback – San Diego Union-Tribune

While it’s true that William Shakespeare’s 1590s-era play “The Comedy of Errors” didn’t embody the road “chill, my dude” or references to the TV exhibits “Friends” and “Beavis and Butt-Head,” it’s additionally true that the Bard would doubtless have loved the play’s newest iteration that opened Saturday on the Old Globe’s outside competition stage in Balboa Park.

“The Comedy of Errors” was a box-office hit 400 years in the past, due to its broad, slapstick humor and its foolish wisp of a narrative in regards to the mistaken identification chaos that happens when two units of identically named twins — every separated in infancy by a shipwreck — find yourself in the identical city of Ephesus a quarter-century later.

With so little meat to work with within the script, administrators have all the time leaned into creating bodily comedy, visible humor, dance and musical moments to flesh out the story. That’s precisely what director James Vásquez has accomplished within the Globe’s humorous, endearing and entertaining new manufacturing, the place his Ephesus is a Nineties-era gritty American-style metropolis with a nightclub, auto restore store, tattoo parlor and motel.

Vásquez has neatly trimmed the play to 90 intermissionless minutes and stuffed it with amusing references to ’90s-era music, films, TV, slang, vogue, fads and meals. And, he has accomplished it whereas retaining Shakespeare’s authentic rhyming couplets model. It’s the type of nostalgic, dance-filled present that retains you smiling, laughing and tapping your toes to the tip.

Antipholus of Ephesus is a hard-partying, in-control businessman with a spouse, a mistress on the facet and a loyal servant who retains his secrets and techniques named Dromio of Ephesus. Their lives are disrupted when a ship arrives carrying the wide-eyed harmless Antipholus of Syracuse and his keen however unsophisticated servant, Dromio of Syracuse.

Comedy ensues when Antipholus of Ephesus’ lonely spouse, Adriana, errors his long-lost twin for her husband, and cash supposed by the Antipholuses for varied items and providers will get handed to the incorrect Dromios.

Standout performers embody the extremely limber Sarah Stiles because the sex-starved and closely permed Adriana, the boyish Will Blum as a frenetic, popcorn-munching Dromio of Syracuse and Heather Velazquez as Adriana’s candy however sad-eyed sister Luciana.

Joshua Echebiri, as Antipholus of Ephesus and Brandon Micheal Hall as Antipholus of Syracuse look related however distinction one another properly in physicality and persona. And Daniel Petzold has a seen-it-all high quality as Dromio of Ephesus.

Amanda Vander Byl’s costumes for the twins look related however with slight variations, and so they replicate the material patterns, hues and kinds of the ’90s. Lawrence E. Moten III designed the city, neon-light-enhanced surroundings, Melanie Chen Cole designed sound and Sherrice Mojgani designed lighting.

Some of this manufacturing’s greatest moments contain the intelligent use of ’90s music snippets with apt lyrics that go well with the story. Listen for the Backstreet Boys, Ace of Base, Coolio and Suzanne Vega, amongst others. And you may’t miss the various references to the sit-com “Friends,” from the characters’ names used as a password to the multicolor umbrellas from the TV present’s intro.

Thanks to  in the present day’s ubiquity of social media and streaming providers, ’90s common tradition is simply as acquainted to Americans of their 20s as their 60s, so this manufacturing has common attraction and its fast-paced, feel-good and humorous.

‘The Comedy of Errors’

When: 8 p.m. Tuesdays by means of Sundays. Through Aug. 24

Where: Lowell Davies Festival Theatre, The Old Globe, 1363 Old Globe Way, Balboa Park, San Diego

Tickets: $36 and up

Phone: 619-234-5623

Online: theoldglobe.org

Originally Published: August 3, 2025 at 1:00 PM PDT