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Another round of free outdoor summer theater hits Berkeley over this weekend – this time a very funny, slapstick all-female production of Shakespeare’s “Comedy of Errors,” staged by Woman’s Will and performed in John Hinkel Park. 

Erin Merritt, a graduate of Berkeley High School, formed Woman’s Will three years ago, because of a shortage of parts for local Shakespearean woman actors. “Every year,” said Merritt, “we actors here in the Bay Area sit in big groups and have huge auditions for the various summer Shakespeare festivals.” 

“Locally there are Cal Shakes, San Francisco Shakespeare, and others,” she continued, “but there are also auditions in the Bay Area for Shakespeare festivals in Idaho, Utah and Colorado.” 

“We actors gets to know each other,” Merritt added, “and it’s always quite sad because there are fabulous women at these auditions, but each festival hires maybe three or four.” 

“In this year’s production – “Comedy of Errors,” one of Shakespeare’s funniest plays – two sets of identical twins separated at birth unexpectedly find themselves in the same city years later. Chaos ensues as the four twins unwittingly stumble through a mystifying day of humorous mistaken identity snafus – resulting in hot arguments over money, jewelry, lovers and lawsuits. 

Two of the twins are gentlemen (both named Antipholus). The other two twins are their servants (both named Dromio). A lot of the humor comes from the Antipholuses (Allyson Kulavis and Carla Pantoja) beating up on the Dromios (Tracy Hudak and Kristina Goodnight) in frustration and confusion as the identity snafus multiply. 

The servant twins get slapped around for doing the wrong things for the wrong masters. When everyone finally appears on stage together for the first time near the end of the play, the mysteries are solved and things end happily. 

This is a story from an earlier time. Shakespeare based “Comedy of Errors” on Roman playwright Plautus’ “Menaechmi,” written about 200 B.C. It is perhaps Shakespeare’s earliest play, and his only true farce. 

There are many good performances in this Woman’s Will production. Standouts include two wonderful slapstick turns by Tracy Hudak and Kristina Goodnight as the two indignant and abused servant Dromios. Hudak’s account of being mistakenly pursued by a kitchen wench affianced to the other Dromio is a riot. 

Courtney Shropshire is strong as angry wife Adriana, hurt and upset by the brush-off from a stranger who she believes is her husband. Lisa Wentz does a nice job as Adriana’s sister Luciana, shocked to find herself romantically pursued by a man she believes to be her sister’s husband. 

Diane Tasca is a wacky Dr. Pinch, brought in to exorcise demons when things get really out of control. Ej Ndeto [sic] creates two very distinctive characters in smaller roles, first as a hearty merchant helping to set up the play’s story early on, and later as the willowy abbess Emilia who spins “Comedy’s” plot to its unexpected conclusion. 

Each week the playing space changes, however, as “Comedy of Errors” moves from park to park around the Bay Area. This coming Saturday and Sunday it plays again in Berkeley, but this time at Live Oak Park. 

Planet theater reviewer John Angell Grant has written for “American Theater,” “Backstage West,” “Callboard” and many other publications. E-mail him at jagplays@yahoo.com