The Comedy of Errors
by William Skakespeare
directed by Fabio Grossi
starring Andrea Gambadoro, Gianni Giuliano, Fabrizio Amicucci, Fabio Pasquini, Gianni Verdesca, Marco Paparella, Gerardo Fiorenzano, Gianni Verdesca, Niccolò Rizzini, Roberto Saura, Federico Mancini, Loredana Piedimonte, Federica Bern, Valentina Gristina, Cristina Capodicasa, Rita Abela, Alessandro Gorgoni, Enrico Gimelli
costumes Santuzza Calì
music Germano Mazzochetti
light design Umile Vainieri
choreography Monica Codena
photo Giampaolo Demma
assistant director Mimmo Verdesca
Director’s notes.
The Comedy of Errors is one of the first comedies written by Shakespeare. Inspired by Plautus’ Menaechmi, in this work the comical mechanism of the double is high power: to the two homonymous brothers, two servants are added, also identical and homonymous.
In the history of Elizabethan representations, the two twin pairs were always interpreted by two similar-looking actors. In some modern representations, brothers and servants were interpreted by a single actor. In the stage version directed by Fabio Grossi, the same actor will play the role of the two twins.
The company is made up of young professionals, together with established professional figures such as Santuzza Calì for costumes, Germano Mazzocchetti for the music and Umile Vainieri for the lights design. This version of Shakespeare’s work emphasizes the comedy that characterizes it: while respecting the drama initially told, the path will twist between ambiguity and misunderstandings of the plot. The game of the “same” read as the “different” allows you to point out how distrust of what you think different can lead to a confusion of intentions that goes beyond reasonable doubt. In this game of doubles, what at first will pass as a dramatic expression of life, in the end will contradict itself with its double, in a metaphor that swings between life and death. The story takes place on a single day, from dawn to dusk, from a tragic beginning, with Egeon condemned to death, to the most classic of happy ends, with the reunited family and a new wedding coming.