William Sturdivant and Emily Fury Daly Photo by Dan Norman

The "right hands" are here in the form of director Doug Scholz-Carlson's nimble fingers. Scholz-Carlson piles an array of shtick, sight gags, wise-guy accents, clowning, and 1980s references and imagery on top of the so-ridiculous-it-hurts mayhem that animates the play as Shakespeare wrote it. This is an outlandishly good time. I will concede, it is nothing more than an outlandishly good time, a few sly references and closing benediction that link the plot to our current politics regarding the treatment of foreigners notwithstanding. These days–well, hell, any days–an outlandishly good time is a great reason to spend a couple of hours seated among strangers, all in the thrall of a good mood.

The plot revolves around two pairs of identical twin boys who are separated in childhood by a storm at sea. One set of twins, sons of a Syracusan merchant named Egeon and his wife, are both named Antipholus. The other set of twins, sons of a poor woman with no hope, are both named Dromio. Egeon adopts Dromio and Dromio intending to raise them to be servants to his sons, Antipholus and Antipholus. Back to that storm at sea: their ship is split in two, with Egeon, Antipholus, and Dromio adrift on one half the vessel and Egeon's wife, the other Antipholus, and the other Dromio adrift on the other half. Each are rescued by different ships which bring them to different harbors–Egeon, his Antipholus and his Dromio back to Syracuse, and the others to Corinth. Confused yet? Just wait.

When Antipholus of Syracuse reaches the age of 18, he and his servant Dromio go in search of their long-lost brothers. When, after several years, they do not return to Syracuse, Egeon, having now lost everyone, goes looking for them. His search brings him to Ephesus, a city which harbors a hatred for Syracuse and punishes any Syracusan who enters their walls by death, unless they can pay a lofty fine of one thousand marks. Egeon is this arrested, but when he tells his sad story, he is given one day to find a friend to pay his fine. Well, sir, who should arrive in Ephesus that same day, but Antipholus and Dromio of Syracuse, still in search of their brothers. As it turns out, they hit the jackpot, for their brothers are indeed now citizens of Ephesus. From this point, complications ensue, mistaken identities abound, and hilarity triumphs.

The show begins with two hosts–Michael Fitzpatrick and Stephanie Lambourn in brash color-block nylon jogging suits and sweatbands–welcoming the audience and explaining a few ground rules. One of these is that there are more characters in the play than there are actors in Great River Shakespeare's company (which numbers nine) and so, in addition to double casting several roles, there will be other substitutions, for example a video monitor uses Max Headroom, an early specimen of artificial intelligence emitted by an animated talking head, to play Solinus, Duke of Ephesus (Max Headroom, in turn, is played on the video by Gavin Mueller). Taking the part of a jailor, who has just a few scant words in the play, is a contraption comprising a riotous combination of inanimate parts, topped by a Keystone Cops style helmet. An audience volunteer is recruited to fill in for another small character, and puppets appear in the execution of the closing scenes. All ingenious, all great fun.

The two heroes of the production are William Sturdivant as the twin Antipholus brothers and Emily Fury Daly as the twin Dromio brothers. Quick costume changes and different vocal inflections set each brother apart from the other, with Shakespeare's formidable wit at its best in using the pretext of mistaken identities as a pedestal for rampant wordplay, physical comedy, and giddily preposterous plot developments. Sturdivant is more often the "straight man" in these escapades, with Daly playing the Dromios as highly articulate clowns. The proceedings are lightweight fluff, but their execution calls for the same concentration as a thoroughly whipped merengue, and the results are as sweet and delectable.

Supporting this quadrangle of twins, Diana Coates is marvelous as Adriana, the put-upon (though somewhat overbearing in her own right) wife of Antipholus of Ephesus, sporting the visage of a Jersey Shore dolled-up housewife in costume designer John Merritt's blindingly red dress with black and white checkerboard trim. Similarly dolled up in a brilliant yellow number is Adriana's sister Luciana, played with moxie by understudy Develyn Jayan, ably filling in or Eliana Rowe. The Courtesan to whom Antipholus of Ephesus retreats when his own wife, having mistaken his twin brother for her husband, refuses him entry into his own home is played by Serena Phillip with a confident swagger, marking a sign of the actor's wide range after seeing her as a besotted Juliet earlier that same day.

Michael Fitzpatrick makes for a fine, bedraggled Egeon and Stephanie Lambourn offers a late-in-the-play dose of calm as an Abbess, the play's sole character who dispenses gentle wisdom. Fitzpatrick and Lambourn give a brief but crafty comic turn, he as Dr. Pinch and she as the invented Mrs. Pinch, the pair made to have a striking similarity to a husband-and-wife team of televangelists who were riding high through most of the '80s. As a goldsmith and a couple of merchants, Gavin Mueller, Lambourn, and Denzel Dejournette (covering for Alessandro Yokoyama) contribute to the merriment.

The production uses the same simple set, designed by Leah Ramillano, as Great River Shakespeare's production of Romeo and Juliet, adding a pair of portable panels that are drawn together to form the exterior of Antipholus of Ephesus' home, and become an integral part of a fantastic chase scene, which itself requires split second blocking by director Scholz-Carlson. The costumes designed by John Merritt make pains to tap into what is funny about each of the play's characters, with the vaudevillian look of the Dromio brothers (along with white face and color streaks in his hair) working in this ball of confusion, even if they are out of sync with the '80s motif. Lonnie Rafael Alcaraz's lighting design, Matthew Tibbs' sound design, and Karl Gfall's props designs bring additional elements of pleasure to this joyful production.

Great River Shakespeare Festival is spending its last season in its long-time performance space on the campus of Winona State University. Next year the Festival will move to a new home in downtown Winona, the rehabilitated Winona Masonic Temple, built in 1909 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1998. Development of this performing arts space, a partnership between the Festival and the city of Winona, speaks to the community's dedication to the arts, which includes the annual Minnesota Beethoven Festival, the Sandbar Storytelling Festival, the Frozen River Film Festival, Minnesota Marine Art Museum, Winona County Historical Museum, and other cultural assets. Along with fine restaurants in an historic downtown and its scenic riverfront and bluff country, this makes Winona a great destination, no more so than during Great River Shakespeare Festival's summer run.

Great River Shakespeare Festival continues through July 27, 2025, with The Comedy of Errors in rotation with Romeo and Juliet at the DuFresne Performing Arts Center of Winona State University, 450 Johnson Street, Winona MN. For the schedule of performances and other events, and for tickets, please call 507-474-7900 or visit GRSF.org.

Playwright: William Shakespeare; Director: Doug Scholz-Carlson; Assistant Director: Yashashvi Choudhary; Scenic Designer: Leah Ramillano; Costume Designer: John Merritt; Lighting Designer: Lonnie Rafael Alcaraz; Assistant Lighting Designer: Avery Reagan; Sound Designer: Matthew Tibbs; Props Designer: Karl Gfall; Text Coach: Terry Weber; Assistant Voice and Text Coach: Sammy Pontello; Intimacy Director: Kara Eggers; Assistant Intimacy Director: Gabriela Bulka; Fight Choreographer: Gabriela Bulka; Assistant Fight Director: Denzel Dejournette; Costume Design Assistant: Matthew Robert Carl; Stage Manager: Abbi Hess; Assistant Stage Manager: Mayson Knipp.

Cast: Gabriela Bulka (understudy), Yashashvi Choudhary (understudy), Diana Coates (Adriana), Clay Cooper (understudy), Denzel Dejournette (understudy), Emily Fury Daly (Dromio of Syracuse/ Ephesus), Michael Fitzpatrick (Host/Egeon/Dr. Pinch), Develyn Jayan (understudy), Stephanie Lambourn (Merchant/Mrs. Pinch/Amelia), Gavin Mueller (Solinus/Agnelo)), Serena Phillip (Courtesan), Sammy Pontello (understudy), Eliana Rowe (Luciana), William Sturdivant (Antipholus of Syracuse/Ephesus), Alessandro Yokoyama (Balthazar).