Sarasota Ballet A Comedy of Errors Review
March 25, 2022 | Van Wezel Performing Arts Center – Sarasota, FL, USA
Friday, March 25, 2022, Sarasota Ballet’s world premiere of Sir David Bintley’s A Comedy of Errors wowed a sold-out house at the Van Wezel Performing Arts Center.
The story ballet unfolded seamlessly on the commissioned, fully orchestrated score of Matthew Hindson. This refreshing farce of mistaken identity adhered to the comedic strategies of countryman William Shakespeare’s 1594 play. Indeed, audiences in Elizabethan England could have followed along.
The choreography, score, and design, together, made words obsolete as movement through ballet conveyed a welcoming new form of narrative.
The ballet is told in three parts – Prologue, Act I, and Act II, with an intermission coming after Act I. Before dancing began, recorded music and audio accompanied a series of massive photos projected on the set to stage the story. Through images, the audience learned that two young female friends from England had visited Ibiza, Spain, in the 1970s. Both ended up pregnant by the same guy; both had twins nine months later, and both gave one twin away. Thirty years later, the mothers returned to Ibiza with the sons they raised. The audience quickly learned that the sons given away at birth lived in Ibiza, and the comedy ensued.
Sarasota Ballet's A Comedy of Errors Trailer
Costuming was essential for audiences to believe that two different dancers were twins. Designer Dick Bird’s decisions made us believe, in both obvious and subtle ways. For example, twins Tony and Anthony wore versions of the same bright yellow suit, and twins Del and Derek quickly end up in twined attire.
More subtle details enhanced conveyance of the intentionally confusing kinships. Twins Tony and Anthony and their mother, for example, all had the same white mallen streak in their dark hair. Details were everywhere in costuming and design, building an expansive subconscious cheat sheet of who’s who.
Props were also important in this staging, from the rolling suitcases used to drive the corps in early scenes to the valet carried by Anthony and the duffle bag tossed about by his twin.
In the opening night performance, timing with props was pristine. In one of the most exciting executions, a mobile clothing rack was all that naughtily obfuscated Tony’s nearly nude wife from the audience. The intricate, fluid choreography was electric here, as masterful control among the four dancers generated eclectic comic tension. Fantastic!
Musically, the active, complex score leveraged comedic tones from all instruments, most obviously the brass section.
But the real hero of the score was the flute section. Hindson is a master of this woodwind, and this prowess echoed throughout this Comedy of Errors. Used to inspire every emotion, from impish fun to tender reconciliation, the flute features were among the most notable, guiding consistent and crisp delivery from all dancers – principals, soloists, and corps.
Often, it was hard to separate the choreography from the music, due, no doubt, to the genuine relationship between Sir David Bintley and Hindson.
Tony, danced for the premiere by Ricardo Graziano, was repeatedly effortless in his early movements, wearing tan jazz shoes and a confidence befitting his character’s rakish nature. In Act I, he floated through pairings with wife Adriana, danced by Danielle Brown. He athletically wooed his ‘Vacuous Mistress,’ Erotia (as she was titled in the program), danced by Victoria Hulland. Graziano’s comedic timing drove the cast around him in a racy and raucous Prologue and Act I.
The corps de ballet also delivered, sharing athletic storytelling via beach life scenarios that further painted Sir David Bintley’s vision for the allure of Ibiza.
The layers and layers of storytelling through costuming, music, and motion came to a dense conclusion at Act I’s end with a disco/rave scene complete with the impressive nightclub lighting of Sarasota native Aaron Muhl’s design. While the first half of the performance did not offer dancers en pointe, the balletic interpretations of genres including rave, disco, and beachercize were precise, big, and bold.
At intermission, everyone knew the storyline, and seats were full again long before the lights dimmed for Act II.
Act II opened with events that ultimately led to the most emotive scene, the reconciliation pas de deux between Tony (Graziano) and wife Adriana (Brown).
When the two came together for the pas de deux, he has wronged her; she’d had enough. Still, there was something between them. Tony still loved her, and those feelings came through in the facial expressions and mournful, desperate moves he used to guide his partner through the intricate, intimate steps of the movement. The audience rooted for Tony to get her back. He did. Such a connection, to this reviewer, is art realized.
Again, that realization starts at the front, the form, with creators Bintley and Hindson.
In the company’s large, much-appreciated glossy season program, Bintley explained that
“Just as George Gershwin didn’t write jazz, but composed orchestral music during the Jazz Age, so Matthew’s music, whilst displaying all the best qualities of orchestral composition often reflects the influence of current popular music like disco, metal, techno, and rave.”
Masters of their art form capture the residue of their times. Bintley does for dance what Hindson does for music, translating and connecting a diverse array of dance forms through his foundational lens of ballet.
Amid the impact of the myriad of genres, those who anticipated pointework did not leave disappointed.
While dancers wore everything from sneakers to jazz shoes for most of the ballet, Act II welcomed ten corps members brightly clad in exercise wear and dancing en pointe. They entered with confident, staccato unity, forming a clean line along the beachfront to initiate the race to revelation for the characters discovering the mistaken identities.
Once true identities were revealed, unity was quickly restored. Anthony, finally aware that he had been mistaken for his brother, could unite with his love, Luciana, a character described appropriately in the program as ‘Adriana’s Bookish Sister.’ Throughout the performance, the chemistry between Anthony – Ivan Spitale – and Luciana – Marijana Dominis – built through well-balanced comedic and romantic exchanges, culminating in a believable kiss amid the frenetic chase scene’s culmination.
Twins Del and Derek served as reliable comedic relief throughout the ballet, and were, thus, the appropriate choice to break the fourth wall just before the final scene by sitting together on the end of the stage and offering a classic ‘ta da’ move to the audience. And just as the audience recovered, the Sarasota Orchestra resumed play, despite insistence from Del and Derek that the show was over. Behind them, a new scene emerged – the setting for the wedding of Anthony and Luciana.
Ah, of course… all comedies from Shakespeare end in a wedding, right? Here, we felt echoes of the recent Act I’s white and gold disco/rave scene. We felt echoes of the traditions of the Bard.
But there was something really, really new about this ballet that told a 400-year-old story through the talents of some of the most skilled and prolific creators of our ballet era.
The residue of the past was deconstructed to create newness in the complete ballet experience – choreography, music, and design. The dancers responded to the unique platform this premiere gifted them. And the audience showered thunderous applause for the effort. Witnessing Sir David Bintley, Matthew Hindson, Dick Bird, Sarasota Ballet Director Iain Webb, and Guest Conductor Paul Murphy of Birmingham Royal Ballet gathered together on stage during the applause was rare and memorable.
Thank you, Gentlemen.
Featured Photo of Danielle Brown and Ricard Grazziano in Sir David Bintley’s A Comedy of Errors. Photography by Frank Atura.
