Fredericton’s Bard in the Barracks to stage The Comedy of Errors and Cymbeline, June 21-July 8.
Bard in the Barracks’ 2018 season will feature the return of a popular production from last year, along with a new work that will introduce Fredericton audiences to one of Shakespeare’s lesser-known late gems.
This year’s second consecutive two-play season will include a remount of the company’s 2017 production of The Comedy of Errors in Barracks Square. A high-spirited, farcical comedy, the play depicts the chaos that results when two pairs of long-separated identical twins unknowingly find themselves in the same city and cases of mistaken identity spiral out of control, threatening dangerous consequences. Set in a seaside town in Italy in the 1970s, last year’s colorful and zany production was a hit with audiences but ran afoul of the weather gods, completing only six performances and leaving many ticket buyers disappointed.
The summer’s second play will be Shakespeare’s late romance Cymbeline, to be staged in Odell Park. A tale of jealousy that sees lovers and families torn apart by envy and malice only to be reunited after standing the test of time, Cymbeline is a wild and exciting fairy tale-inspired dark comedy. Set in Ancient Britain against the backdrop of a rebel uprising, as native Britons struggle to assert their independence from Roman invaders, Cymbeline will transform Odell Park into the wilds of rural Wales, replete with potions, treachery, ghosts, gods, and epic battles.
Together, The Comedy of Errors and Cymbeline will run from June 21-July 8. Full details regarding performances and tickets will be announced later in the spring on the company’s website at www.bardinthebarracks.com. For more information, email lfalken@unb.ca or phone 506 458-7406.
