35-2,p23

A review of' 'The Comedy of Errors, " by William Shakespeare. The Goodman Theatre of Chicago. Directed by Robert Woodruff. Jan. 14 - Feb. 27, 1983.

By Joel Fink - West Lafayette, Indiana

Imagine a place where everyone juggles; a country of jugglers, clowns and acrobats; a land of jokers, where nothing is more highly valued than a good pun. No, it is not an IJA convention! It's the town of Ephesus, in William Shakespeare's play The Comedy of Errors, as presented by the Goodman Theatre of Chicago.

Under the direction of Roben Woodruff, the Goodman was transformed into a mecca for some of America's finest "new" vaudeville performers, all within the framework of Shakespeare's play. Even before the performance began, false noses, glasses and eyebrows on the theatre's statues of famous writers proclaimed that this was no ordinary production of Shakespeare. Indeed, the cast itself was a tip-off that the unexpected should be expected: The production starred The Flying Karamazov Brothers and Avnerthe Eccentric. By the end of the performance it was clear that Shakespeare had emerged triumphant - if not unscathed.

The performance started with Avner as a tramp-clown-janitor, sweeping a spot of light onto the stage. This was developed into a carefully timed comic routine, which established the lazzi-like bits which were used throughout the show.

But as the intentionally comic program notes indicated, . 'The plot has something to do with twins and juggling. " However, from where I sat, this production had far more to do with juggling than with twins!

In a land where everyone juggled and joked, the foreigners to that country were forced to read books on "How-to-Juggle" and "How-to-Joke" in order to survive in that society. The director freely adapted and re-shaped the text for this particular cast, and juggling was incorporated, not as a gimmick or a pastiche to the action, but as its essence.

Four of The Flying Karamazov Brothers were cast as the two sets of twins at the heart of the plot, with the fifth playing Shakespeare.

Juggling in this land became a basic and necessary language of communication: a game, a sport, a way to make music, and even a way to fight. At one moment in the show, a circle of jugglers passing clubs surrounded two strangers as chords of the gang-music from West Side Story played. Suddenly, clubs passing through the air became a threatening event. But, nothing in this production was serious for long, and against a relentless barrage of "shtick," the audience was forced to surrender all pretense of sense or sensibility.

FKB'S CASCADE ONTO BROADWAY

Judging from past success, the Flying Karamazov Brothers should be a hit on

Broadway by the time your eyes scan these words. Following eight years of purposeful steps up the Ladder of Success, they were to open May 10 at the recently refurbished Ritz Theatre, a Broadway playhouse in New York City.

Their most recent previous step in theatrical innovation, starring in Shakespeare's A Comedy of Errors at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago, is reviewed above. The Village Voice described it as a "brazen departure" from the regional theatre's standard annual offering of work by The Bard, but our reviewer, Joel Fink, believes that it worked beautifully.

The FKB's might be the ultimate streetjuggling success story. "Everything we've learned about theatre, we've learned on stage," one said.

In 1974, they were four recent graduates of California Universities. The found they loved juggling and cutting up at renaissance fairs and on street comers better than anything else even at. an occasional 30-show-per-day clip! They were opening act for the Grateful Dead, and before long began living most of their lives on the road playing colleges and town playhouses.

Their identity as frantic, philosophical, daring, talented and funny black-clad, hairy Russians carries their shows along for up to two hours. Juggling is the constant theme around which their theatrics and music revolve. They pass highly dangerous objects (showing scars to prove they're real!), and volunteer one of their number to juggle any three objects the audience profers - or suffer pie in the face for failure!

In 1979 they won a special off-Broadway Obie award for performnances at 'The Other End" in New York.

Publicity in Newsweek, People and The New York Times hails their style and has advanced their career. The IJA is proud to be represented in the group by Tim Furst (Fyodor). Others are Paul Magid (Dmitri), Howard Patterson (Ivan), Samuel Williams (Smyerdyakov) and Randy Nelson (Alyosha).

For more information about "The Flying Karamazov Brothers" at the Ritz, write New York City.