Geoffrey Warren Barnes II, from Cincinnati, started his career in musical theater and discovered Shakespeare in his mid-20ss. He was scheduled to make his first appearance at the Illinois Shakespeare Festival in 2020. The pandemic foiled that plan, but three years later, his appearance on stage finally came.
Barnes and Adonis Perez-Escobar are especially delightful in providing much of the festival’s comic relief. They play three clowns a piece in "The Tempest" and "The Comedy of Errors," while tackling dramatic roles in Lauren Gunderson’s “The Book of Will.”
Perez-Escobar plays Dromio of Ephesus and Dromio of Syracuse — one-half of two sets of twins with the same names who inadvertently swap places in “The Comedy of Errors”— and the Trinculo to Barnes’ Stephano in “The Tempest.”
Perez-Escobar made his ISF debut last summer beside Tom Quinn and David Kortemeier in “The Complete Works of Shakespeare (Abridged).” So, this is technically his first Illinois Shakes doing Shakespeare, too.
“I really relished in the rehearsal process,” he said, noting the mental gymnastics it takes to switch shows almost nightly, “finding a way to separate the twins and then finding a way to separate my Trinculo and my Dromios from ‘Tempest’ and ‘Comedy of Errors.’”
“Like Adonis, I’m playing three clowns,” Barnes said. “It’s a lot of work, but I’m having a great time. I get to play and get to have a lot of fun with Adonis — especially in ‘The Tempest.’ Working alongside him, it’s been fantastic.”
Clowns appear frequently in Shakespeare plays, even those that aren’t considered comedies. They break up the action to provide comic relief and a chance for the audience to breathe. But Barnes and Perez-Escobar take their not-so-serious characters seriously.
“Especially with clowns, a lot of their humor sometimes comes textually, and it’s a little difficult to translate a lot of those jokes into a contemporary sense,” said Perez-Escobar. “During the rehearsal process, just really finding the clearness and the crispness of those lines in order to find the comedy has been really helpful.”
“There is truth in our characters,” added Barnes. “In terms of Stephano, deep down he hasn’t had the sense of validation or respect. And I think that’s what he fights for.”
Shakespeare for all
Considered together, the 2023 season represents a narrative arc of its own.
Two equally convoluted plots (don’t worry, the program has flow charts) written at the beginning and end of Shakespeare’s career demonstrate a playful range of styles and tempos. Gunderson’s “Book of Will” shows what likely took place after Shakespeare’s death with the publication of the First Folio.
That close friends of Shakespeare took time to collect, write down and publish these plays is why we have them. They arrived on this continent by boat with the first English settlers, which is perhaps why we Americans give them so much power. But whatever the lens and specific history that affords Shakespeare so much influence 400 years later, Barnes and Perez-Escobar see the bones of each story as playing in a universal sand box.
“There are a lot of themes in Shakespeare that we still explore today,” Barnes said. “Love, betrayal, deception, finding oneself in others, finding your family — ‘Romeo and Juliet’ is not just a story of two teenage lovers, it’s about families coming together and dealing with loss.”
“You can find your voice through those words,” added Perez-Escobar. “Just looking at the text, there are passages that will take your breath away. There’s so much beauty in that poetry and I think there’s something beautiful about everyone being able to have a chance to come in and use those words, no matter what your background is — no matter where you came from.”
“The Tempest,” “The Comedy of Errors” and “The Book of Will” run in repertory through Aug 5 at the Illinois Shakespeare Festival, on the grounds of Ewing Cultural Center, 48 Sunset Road, Bloomington. Tickets are $30-$50 at illinoisshakes.com and (309) 438-2535.
