Comedy of Errors

Woman's Will, the all-female Shakespeare troupe, has been touring this production to parks around the Bay Area; I caught up with the show at the picturesque Rengstorff House in fog-free Mountain View before the company headed back to the city. Led by director Erin Merritt, these spunky gals crashed the Shakespeare scene in 1998, but they're no novelty act. In fact, this latest offering is one of the group's best shows to date. Comedy of Errors, reputed to be Shakespeare's earliest play, is a farce centered on Antipholus of Syracuse (Allyson Kulavis) and his servant Dromio (Tracy Hudak), both of whom are one in a set of twins trying to find their brothers, Antipholus (Carla Pantoja) and Dromio (Kristina Goodnight) of Ephesus. It's a simple plot for Shakespeare -- and Merritt takes full advantage of it by arranging a boisterous production of mistaken identities. Hudak and Goodnight nearly steal the show with energetic physical bits, including some tumbling, while Kulavis and Pantoja get increasingly more frustrated and befuddled as the Dromios' masters. Courtney Shropshire (as Antipholus of E's wife), Lisa Wentz (as her sister), and Lisa Jenai Hernandez (a Cortezan) bring a charming touch to the confusion. All of these actors stand out within the strong ensemble-driven show. Woman's Will consistently turns in such quality, and this production is not to be missed.