Review: Theater 2020 Delivers a Refreshing Take on "A Comedy of Errors"

 A Comedy of Errors

Written by William Shakespeare

Adapted and directed by David Fuller

Presented by Theater 2020 at The Great Room at A.R.T./New York

138 South Oxford St., Brooklyn, NYC

June 12-27, 2026

Sometimes theater sheds light on enduring issues in society and human existence; sometimes it’s pure entertainment. We need both—to see anew the most challenging aspects of life and to laugh. Theater 2020’s charming 75-minute adaptation of Shakespeare’s A Comedy of Errors presents the classic tale of mistaken identity anew. With a cleverly streamlined script and a versatile, talented cast, Theater 2020’s A Comedy of Errors is a laugh-out-loud good time from start to finish. Life is hard; laughter is a priceless antidote that the best theater can provide to take away the challenges for a moment.

Fully utilizing the space of the Great Room at the A.R.T./New York studios in Fort Greene, the production begins with the cast entering up the center aisle, singing a redacted version of the Duke’s opening lines regarding the ban on Syracusans in Ephesus. They then proceed to present a kind of dumb show with Aegeon (David Arthur Bachrach) as the narrator in order to catch the audience up efficiently about the backstory of the twins’ births and separation—just one example of the adept way that director David Fuller adapted the original script to fit this shortened format.

The humor of A Comedy of Errors of course depends nearly entirely in the delivery of the actors, and this cast does not disappointment. From the comically different, there’s-no-way-they-would-be-mistaken-for-identical-twins-in-real-life Antipholuses (Robert J. Dyckman and Kodee Martin) to the actually look-alike, cross-cast Dromios (Sabrina Kalman and Francoise Traxler), the various plot threads involving the mistaken identities among this quartet are hilariously delivered. While all four are excellent, Francoise Traxler (Dromio of Syracuse) stands out for her incredibly skillful and quick shifts between different dialects.

One comedic innovation of the production is the use of puppets for a handful of minor roles, such as the courtesan patronized by Antipholus of Ephesus and Angelo, a goldsmith. While the comedy of the play as written hardly needs enhancement, the puppets add to it in key moments, particularly because Amelia Corrada plays both Antipholus of Ephesus’s wife Adriana and the courtesan, another example of true mastery of quick dialect shifts.

There are a few moments where the play hints at more serious issues, particularly in the sometimes abusive physical treatment of the Dromios (who are, as the play tells us, property of the Antipholuses), made all the more uncomfortable here by the cross casting. But ultimately, the production is far more an invitation to laugh, and laugh often and loudly, than it is to reflect deeply on social issues. What a welcome invitation that is, a chance to escape for a bit, to return to the world renewed and refreshed.

-Stephanie Pietros