The Comedy of Errors is, on one level, as far from the seriousness of Hamlet as you can get!  It has the obligatory Shakespearean shipwreck to get the action going and then, not one, but two sets of identical twins who get mixed up with each other in farcical fashion throughout.  This has been such a fun show to put together and we hope you enjoy the humor as much as we have!  It has wordplay, physical comedy, general confusion, everything you could ask for in a couple of hours of leisure time on a weekend!  

But, on a deeper level, there is much food for thought.  Antipholus of Ephesus, raised at court with no knowledge of his family, sees every relationship in terms of power.  He and his wife aren’t happy, but have no idea what would fix anything (not that they aren’t trying in their own warped ways) and he has a pretty brutal relationship with his Dromio.  Antipholus of Syracuse was raised by his father, with the memory of lost family always before them; he has a much more brotherly relationship with his Dromio, and speaks of marriage in terms of service out of love for his intended wife.

The importance of fatherhood, the life of the son reflecting the “face” of his father, and the thoughtfulness about what makes a good marriage are all part of this play – though lightly presented and enjoyable purely on the level of laughter!  We hope you enjoy both!

The first time I ever cried over Shakespeare was when I studied Hamlet at the Omaha Homeschool Learning Center in the spring of 2022.  When I read plays, rarely do I feel attached to the characters in them, but this time I decided that I wanted to produce this show, hoping it could move an audience as it had moved me.

I tried to get a cast together to perform later that summer, but starting such a project so close to the deadline proved to be a bad idea, and I left Hamlet to hang until next year.  However, even after getting a cast and a script, it wasn't all easy going!  It took an extra month to find a King Claudius (thank you Sam!), multiple people were going on vacation, actors needed understudies, and I began to see why one does not have anything to do with another production when they are in the middle of performing Macbeth!

But once we got started, I found it difficult to stay stressed very long; there was always something to smile about at every rehearsal.  An actor had done some phenomenal character work, a piece of difficult blocking had been achieved, or sometimes, a mistake was made that had the whole cast roaring with laughter!  All of these were amazing, and even the less amazing moments were useful for learning.

One thing that I will never forget is how much work the cast put into this show.  People who were going on vacation still brought their scripts and memorized their lines in the car.  And as performance day drew near, a few cast members stepped up and invited everyone over to their house for a last-minute extra rehearsal.  It was moments like those that let me realize just how serious everyone was about this production, and I felt so blessed to be working alongside other people who cared about Hamlet as much as I did!