Duke City.

Bard Crawl, Duke City Repertory Theater.

On my last full day in New Mexico, the four of us, Randy, Kathleen, Susan and myself headed for Albuquerque to check out a performance by the Duke City Rep Theater of Shakespeare’s “The Comedy of Errors” at the Vara Tasting Room. Part of the “Bard Crawl” series, this one happened at an outdoor area on a lovely, mild afternoon. A couple of notes: calling Albuquerque ‘Duke City’ goes way back. The town has long been called the “Duke City” in honor of Francisco Fernández de la Cueva, the 10th Duke of Alburquerque, who served as the Viceroy of New Spain when the city was founded in 1706. Other jokey appellations include ‘Burque,’ an abbreviated form of the the original spelling. Who stole that extra ‘r?’ One most relevant to the Rep theater might be Albuqeerque, or Albuquirky. The Rep Theater’s Bard Crawls fit with pride into to these apt jokes. The idea is that the play happens in a bar, the play is lightly rehearsed], the players are gender fluid and not matched to the gender of the characters they play, each actor may play more than one character, and the audience is encouraged to take photos and video of the performance. When a line is inevitably blown, or an actor ‘goes up,’ that actor calls “line!” The audience has been instructed to react (yells, jeers, hoots, hand clapping, etc.). A prompter, at a table on the edge of the action, which is taking place amidst the audience, give the line and the play continues.

The image above is a still frame of a video I shot with my trusty iPhone SE. That’s Susan Taylor’s back between me and Eve, who is doing a damned fine job as Antipholus of Syracuse. As I noted earlier in this series, the last time I saw Eve, she was in costume, age about 13. Some 20 years later, Eve’s still in costume. Her acting is mature now, and she plays with significant authority. The acting all around was excellent. I did not have the script in front of me, and I was not familiar with the play. It’s complicated by design. It is in no way believable. That is an aspect of its comedy.

For the record, here is the dramatis personae:

The physical comedy in this production must be noted: the action took place amongst we the audience, and for the most part the actors, when not participating in a scene, lounged amongst us. But on a couple of occasions, the actors exited the performing area, ran around the building one can see in the near distance, and returned to perform in as scene out of breath. This was hilarious every time it happened for some reason. There were also moments of crawling and laying down in the grass or on the walkways. One feels that the Bard would be proud. It is fairly well known that in Shakespeare’s time, women did not act in plays, and men routinely played female parts. So this production one-ups that idea: the gender of the actors, and therefore the characters, is irrelevant. So take that, ye gender police!

Anyway… if you are ever in Duke City, check out this company if possible. Here is their website!