The programme lists ten previous productions of The Comedy of Errors by the Royal Shakespeare Company since 1914 and each Director likes to find a new vision for the production. It may have been written in 1594 but Phillip Breen places the action in the Nineteen Eighties in an Eastern Mediterranean hotel foyer with a hint of the never-ending staircase in the wall mosaic(designed by Max Jones). He seems inspired by the comedy of that decade which began with Fawlty Towers and ended with Mr Bean and in-between featured the anarchic frantic comedy of the Young Ones. He accompanies all the action and scene changes with the music by a four-part group who sounded like the Swingle Singers who appeared on so many TV variety shows of the seventies and eighties. The result is a typical British slapstick farce played full-on with energy and over the top physical and facial reactions in the full awareness that this is a stage show in front of a live audience.
We have to suspend our disbelief with the absurd plot of mistaken identities and stupidity of the characters as they stumble from one disastrous encounter to another in the space of just twenty-four hours without recognising their mistakes. The comedy is anarchic, outrageous and maniacal but in the hands of comedy greats like John Cleese, Rik Mayall or Rowan Atkinson they would be playing it with deadly seriousness not realising how their behaviour looks, here the cast are directed to play it with a knowing glint in their eyes and an occasional wink at the audience. As we are in on the joke from the start, we never really get sucked into the mayhem but are casual observers of the main character like the large ensemble behind them.
There are plenty of visual and physical gags peppered amongst the action and there is no faulting the effort of the large cast or Breen’s precise detailed direction that positioned everyone with a purpose even if they were not centre stage. Yet in some of the key moments like when Antipholus of Ephesus is locked out of his own house, we are asked to imagine the door (symbolised by two empty mic stands). The business that follows (which we could see in many pantomimes this Christmas as the broken mirror sketch) with the servants mirroring the other actions could have been so much more effective if staged differently. There are good visual gags for our time with the squirting of hand sanitiser across the stage and a funny sequence with a waiter with a toupee. It’s amusing throughout but there is no subtlety in the comedy and there are no real belly laughs.Casting Director Matthew Dewsbury has worked hard to ensure a diverse and inclusive cast with the pregnant leading lady of Stratford open-air season replaced in a job share by Naomi Sheldon as Adrianna of Ephesus and the very effective casting of Deaf actor William Grint as Second Merchant who signs the speeches with Dyfrig Morris acting as interpreter. This approach works very well, Grint’s menacing Mafiosi presence is enhanced by the comic translations. The two sets of twins are also similar enough to be accepted as twins but also different enough to keep up with the joke of mistaken identity. Guy Lewis is the tall Antipholus of Syracuse and Rowan Polonski is twin from Ephesus. They capture the sense of madness as the accusations are hurled at them as the mistaken perpetrators. Jonathan Broadbent is the squat servant Dromio of Syracuse playing opposite his twin Greg Haiste from Ephesus. They both throw themselves wholeheartedly into the knockabout humour and needlessly point to the “400-year-old jokes”.
Having said that it is a good-looking production and an entertaining evening (if about fifteen minutes too long) but given the Arts Council of England and Wales pours cash into the RSC we should expect more from their productions and this Comedy of Errors falls a little short. Perhaps in the summer sun of an open-air theatre earlier this year in Stratford as we returned to our first shows, it was more effective than in the concrete jungle of the Barbican on a cold winters’ night.Review by Nick Wayne
Rating: ★★★
Seat: Stalls, Row H | Price of Ticket: £57.50
