Mainstage

The Comedy of Errors

March 15 - 24, 2018

By William Shakespeare

Adapted by Jeffrey Renn

Mystery and mayhem are at the heart of Shakespeare’s shortest and funniest comedy that features a pair of twins – twice! Twenty years after they are separated in a storm at sea, the twins find themselves swept up in Mardi Gras celebrations and everyone gets mistaken for everyone else.

This pop musical reboot of the 16th-century farce will have you asking the eternal question Who am I? while dancing in the aisles to songs by artists from Nina Simone to Beyoncé, and Queen to Justin Timberlake.

Recommended for ages 13 +

CAST:

Anna Marie Anderson  Abbess Aemelia
Evan Coates Solinus
David Cosbey Officer Joseph
Brendan Elwell Canadian Antipholus       
Chantal Gallant American Dromio               
Emma Grabinsky Canadian Dromio  
Emily Hay Sister de Claquettes, Mademoiselle Balthazar              
Clayton Jevne Aegeon                 
Elena Kellis The Courtesan  
Maggie Lees Luciana                  
Alexander Moorman Gigi Bouffon       
Tallas Munro Brother Baptiste                 
Rachel Myers Adriana
Ted Angelo Ngkaion Rosario
Arielle Parsons Rex de Tambours              
Nathan Patterson Luce      
Douglas Peerless American Antipholus       
Shayla Pready Nurse
Rahat Saini Roxanna               
Hilary Wheeler Twin Elizabethan Musician
Olivia Wheeler Twin Elizabethan Musician
Taryn Yoneda Ms. Angela

CREATIVE TEAM:

Director: Jeffrey Renn (MFA Candidate)
Music Director: Wendell Clanton
Choreographer: Christina Penhale
Set Designer: Patrick Du Wors
Costume Designer: Jivan Bains-Wood
Lighting Designer: Michael Whitfield
Sound Designer: Aidan Dunsmuir
Stage Manager: Brendan Agnew        

                                                                      

Production Resource Partner:

Box Office

Box Office

About the Director

Upon the advice of Martha Henry Jeffrey studied at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts. There he became a clown and certified stage combat director. He and Martha went on to perform in six shows together. Returning to Canada, Jeffrey worked at Bard on the Beach and helped create the Young Shakespeareans program. In Vancouver, he performed at the Vancouver Playhouse, the Cultch, Carousel Theatre, the Arts Club, and -while holding a faculty position- the Gastown Actors Studio. His true acting training began in Edmonton under Robin Phillips in his company at the Citadel Theatre where he performed in a dozen shows over four seasons. Over the next ten years Jeffrey worked at Canada’s two major repertory companies: Stratford and Shaw. While a member of the acting ensemble, he taught the Young Shavians program and the Stratford Festival’s summer Shakespeare Academy. He has performed twice on Broadway in Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing and Moliere’s The Miser and was in the world premiere of Australia’s international hit Topdogs. He took a hiatus to become an organic farmer. After reaching the lofty wage of 35 cents per hour, he returned to the theatre to support his farming habit. He’s proudly served as the artistic director for Realwheels Theatre Company, advocating for artists who live with disability, work he continues to this day with the Kickstart Disability Arts Organization. He now resides on Salt Spring Island building exitStageLeft’s Summer Shakespeare program and is an artist in residence at the Centre for Studies in Religion and Society at UVIC working on a musical adaptation of Tim Ward’s What the Buddha Never Taught. in Australia.

Listen to Lecture

Listen in as Director Jeffrey Renn talks about different adaptations of Shakespeare that he has been apart of around Canada.


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