Theater Review: 'Comedy of Errors'

Theater director Datner coordinated stage antics that popped off the skillet like a tortilla flying through the air.

By MAX STERN
Theater Review 88 (photo credit: )
Theater Review 88
(photo credit: )
Beersheba Theater Opening Dedication Event Comedy of Errors Adapted by Dan Almagor May 4 The star of the official dedication of the Beersheba Theater's new home was the magnificently modern facility itself. Located within the recently opened Mifal Hapayis Arts Complex in Beersheba and situated diagonally across from City Hall, the interior of pink marble and steel is lit by dozens of lights, equipped with an up-to-date sound system and upholstered with red and pink seats for nearly 400 - exquisitely built by local contractors Delouya and Sons. The opening was originally scheduled four months ago, but it was interrupted in the middle of a performance by a Grad missile fired from Gaza, which dispersed the audience is disarray. Remarks on this evening by Mayor Rubik Danilovich and past mayor Ya'akov Turner not only gave warm credits to many, especially the Meyerhoff Family Foundation (USA) and the Culture and Sport Ministry (Micha Yinnon), but they also made it clear that neither weapons nor scare tactics would deter the development of cultural life in the Negev capital. The assembly responded with an enthusiastic "Hooray!" The red curtain rose on Dan Almagor's prize-winning slang adaptation of Avraham Shlonsky's translation of Shakespeare's hilarious Comedy of Errors. Stage director Nathan Datner set the comedy in a colorful Latin America of the 1930s at a madcap "Speedy Gonzales" pace, with a rumba-like computer score by Yossi Ben-Nun. It tells the story of two sets of twins, lost and separated at birth (Ron Bittman-Eyal Rozales, Yirmi Reich-Oren Cohen), who eventually find each other - but not before causing confusion, consternation and bedlam to family and friends (Nili Tseruga, Yonit Tobi, Yehuda Efroni, Hannah Roth, Poly Reshef and others). Theater director Datner has put together a talented crew (Benno Friedel does sets, Inga Barba creates costumes, Roni Cohen is in charge of lighting and Aviv Ben-Ishay takes on choreography) and coordinated a cast of 14 actors and six sleek dancers in stage antics that popped off the skillet like a tortilla flying through the air.