I'm a little fuzzy on the beginning of this scene, but Antipholus doesn't know he's locked out of the house yet. He's with the men (maybe they just visited the brothel?), and they (Dromio, the police chief, etc.) begin reminiscing about their wives, which I guess is funny because they were just with the courtesans.
The part I remember more clearly is he begins to talk about a lovely sentiment Adriana recently said to him, that the shortest day of the year has the longest night of the year, and sings the song of the romantic verses she's said to him. Then towards then end of the song, it cuts back to inside the house with Adriana and Antipholus from Syracuse, and she is singing it to him. Shortly after the song ends, he sees her sister, Luciana, for the first time when Adriana leaves the room and falls in love with her instead. Antipholus of Ephesus, meanwhile (but a few scenes later), now misses Adriana and is dreamily making his way back home with Dromio, eventually only to find out the door is locked because the sisters think Antipholus is already inside.
I played Luciana in this almost ten years ago! I actually adore this song, simple and cliche as it is. I have to watch the age old video I still have of it now to jog my memory, but I think that's the context. Still, I don't remember it being tongue and cheek at all. It just eventually gets played for the cheap laugh when Adriana begins to reprise it to the wrong Antipholus.
"I thought that that was just going to be a like one shot deal for me, you know, but they kept talking about it like, 'when we do the production, when we do the production', and I was like, 'yes, yes, when you do the production, cool, I will come and see it'". - John Gallagher Jr. on SA
Updated On: 7/11/08 at 12:33 AM
