Allen Contemporary Theatre brings a Shakespearean “Breakneck Comedy of Errors” to the stage this summer

When the three stars of Allen Contemporary Theatre’s Shakespearean summer production take the stage, they’ll have to shake a leg if they want to stay in character. That’s because the trio play all 20 characters in this “breakneck” production of one of The Bard’s classic tales.

Adapted by Timothy Mooney and originally performed as a recorded one-man show during the pandemic, “Breakneck Comedy of Errors” amplifies the humor of Shakespeare’s “The Comedy of Errors.” The fast-paced production full of mistaken identities and lighting quick character changes follows sets of twins separated at birth and the comedic chaos that ensues when they cross paths. The Michael McMillan-directed Allen Contemporary Theatre production runs through September 1.

“I like to describe it as very silly, funny and frantic,” McMillan says. “It has this feeling of chaos to it.” He explains that his longtime love of Shakespeare and the “fun challenge to try to do this show with as few actors as possible” drew him to direct “Breakneck Comedy of Errors.”

In fact, McMillan and his wife, Shea, met through a production of Shakespeare’s “Twelfth Night” at Dallas-based Plague Mask Players, where they now serve as the company manager and director of programming, respectively. According to Michael, Shea designed the set for “Breakneck Comedy of Errors,” creating it with an eye for simplicity to ensure ease of transition between scenes and characters. “It’s definitely a workout to get all the (character) changes in and move around stage so fast,” McMillan says. The actors will even sometimes have to cut behind the stage to make an entrance as a different character on the opposite side before switching back to respond to themselves as their original character.

Carol M. Rice, Jayden Matthews and Jake Lawrence Geary comprise the show’s cast. “It’s a very physical show,” Rice, who plays five characters and the show’s narrator, says. “We’re exhausted when we’re done.”

She details how each actor typically switches characters by a quick change of a hat, wig or glasses. “We have belts with clips on them for our hats if they’re in the same scene or if we’re immediately from one scene to the next,” Rice says. Geary, for example, switches between playing a pair of sisters mid-conversation thanks to a wig that’s split down the middle. “Watching him having to make those switches between characters to keep the conversation going has been really fun and funny,” McMillan says, singling out how blocking the scenes involving one actor playing multiple characters was the most enjoyable to work on in rehearsals.

McMillan adds that each of the actors typically make a “full physical (and) vocal transformation” to go along with the change in appearance for each character. It not only helps the audience keep track of what character a particular actor is at a given moment, but also the actors themselves. “It’s just a matter of getting the flow down more than anything,” Rice says.

Rice’s role as the narrator also helps to keep audiences on-track and “explain some of the weird things that are in the play, and to explain things to the audience who may not be familiar with Shakespeare,” the actor says.

Rice and McMillan hope that the show’s accessibility and laugh-out-loud humor will make for an enjoyable production that perhaps serves to create some new Shakespeare fans in the audience as well. “Maybe it can rewrite what Shakespeare is in their heads, and take it from the required reading in English class in high school that was maybe a little boring or difficult to understand, and brings it into a more relevant place…where you’re able to see the fun that takes place in the story and get the humor and have a good time with it,” McMillan says.

The Allen Contemporary Theatre production of “Breakneck Comedy of Errors” runs through September 1. For more information, including how to purchase tickets, visit https://allencontemporarytheatre.net/.

These interviews were edited for clarity.