Tom Titus
You may think you've seen Shakespeare's "Comedy of Errors"
condensed to 45 minutes and "Hamlet" to 15 at Orange Coast College in
the past, but you probably haven't seen them lately.
These two blasts from the Bard share a double bill at OCC under
the umbrella title of "Supersonic Shakespeare," and what they may
lack in depth they compensate for in hilarity. Director Alex Golson
has added a few fresh touches to each in this theatrical exercise
calculated to test both the actors' talent and stamina.
In Cecil Pickett's adaptation of "Comedy," for instance, there's
the traditional twin masters and twin servants encountering all sorts
of mistaken-identity problems. But this time around, the Duke of
Ephesus is "the Duke" himself -- you know, the one they named the
airport after.
Billy Klein does the local legend to a T, even drawing a "You
rocked in 'Sands of Iwo Jima' " from one of the other actors, just in
case someone in the audience misses the gag.
Sean Heketh and Robert Oldfield score as the befuddled dual
Antipholuses, while Travis Woods and Derek Wiley are uproarious as
the twin Dromios. They're supported by a large and enthusiastic cast,
including Angela Lopez and Angel Correa, who play the local medics as
spooky witch doctors.
"Sir" Frank Miyashiro, boom box in hand, acts as master of
ceremonies for the twin stabs at Shakespeare's heart, and also
doubles as a referee in the "Comedy of Errors" sendup.
After intermission, we get the Bard's masterwork, "Hamlet," in a
hilariously downsized version by playwright Tom Stoppard, who also
skewered this play in "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead." This
latter tidbit of information is also alluded to in the program's cast
list.
Sean Gray enacts the Prince of Denmark as if on amphetamines,
tossing off some of the theater's best-remembered lines and
scattering them to the winds. His father's ghost (the director's
young son, Hal) appears as the Halloween variety spook, speaking
through a sheet and a megaphone.
Angel Correa thoroughly revels in his role as the murderous and
lecherous King Claudius, while Chanel Panagiotopoulos is a splendidly
seductive queen. Emily Rued is particularly watchable as the demented
Ophelia (her "drowning" in the two-minute encore is a real hoot).
The college, which has done both these plays in their full-length
format in the past, traditionally uses the abbreviated comical
versions as exercises for advanced acting students -- of which there
