The Comedy of Errors
About the Production
Shakespeare’s ‘The Comedy of Errors‘ tells the unlikely story of two pairs of identical twins, separated while they are still babes in arms when shipwrecked. The father of one pair, Egeon, continues his search over the years for his missing son, and his search eventually takes him to Ephesus. Sadly, Egeon hails from Syracuse and at this time, his home city and Ephesus are at war. As a result, Egeon is sentenced to death, and has just 24 hours to raise a one thousand mark ransom to avoid the executioner’s axe. As a comedy, this is an unlikely start.
Egeon’s son, Antipholus, (the one that didn’t go missing) has also joined in the search for his brother. And coincidentally he also arrives in Ephesus, unaware of his father’s fate. He’s also unaware that his long-lost twin lives in Ephesus, like him a successful merchant. And so a sequence of events involving mistaken identities is set off, compounded by the even more unlikely situation that his manservant, Dromio, is also an identical twin. And that this twin, who strangely is also called Dromio, just happens to be the manservant of Egeon’s missing son, who by sheer coincidence is called Antipholus too. Because, well, they’re such common names. Honest.
There’s a lot of running around, slapstick violence, misconceived sexual encounters, accusations of theft and even demonic possession, certainly enough to consider this a pure farce, but the shadow of Egeon’s fate lingers across it all, and makes this something a bit deeper. In the end, all is well. Brothers cheerfully embrace and a husband discovers not only a lost son but a lost wife (who he seemingly spent little time looking for).
This was one of Shakespeare’s earliest plays, and also his shortest. The concept is clearly absurd, but it still retains a level of poignancy, and the broad strokes of humour are from time to time put aside to make way for lyrical verse the equal of which you might find in his most highly regarded dramas.
The music for the production was composed and performed by Pete Bird, the fifth such project he’s undertaken for the group. Inspired in part by the period dance tune ‘My Lady Hunsdon’s Puffe’ by the English lutenist John Dowland (1563-1626), whose works have been brought to wider public notice recently by Sting, Pete has attempted to create a sound reminiscent of a small chamber orchestra or string quartet. To that end he has played all the music you will hear, with the exception of the mandolin theme, which is played by Simeon Dawes.
The Cast
Behind the Scenes
Image Gallery
The Reviews
Awarded Five Stars
Theatre in the open air is always a hazardous affair in England, but happily the night I went to see Theatre Workshop Coulsdon present their latest al fresco offering, the weather couldn’t have been better. ‘The Comedy of Errors’ is thought to be one of Shakespeare’s earliest plays and its merry concepts of mistaken identity and lots of high jinks as a result are perfect fare for relaxed viewing. So, in the garden at the company’s regular summer haunt, The Woodman PH in Woodmansterne, they fielded a first class team to entertain us.
Luke Argles did an excellent job as director, keeping the comedy bubbling along with all the knockabout stuff well-timed and certainly owing something to the legendary Basil Fawlty. The plot concerned two sets of twins – two masters named Antipholus and two servants named Dromio for reasons too complex to go into here – who were separated in childhood and meet again by chance. The costume and make-up department did a superb job of actually making the twins look alike. The Antipholuses had good wigs and had grown matching beards while, helped by their hats, the Dromios were hard to tell apart. The servant duo came in for a lot of physical abuse, which was hilarious, so full marks must go to Paul Ford and Chris Blakeney for the way in which they coped with with all the kicks and blows. Doling it out were Mike Brown and Richard Lloyd, both excellent too – with the latter reminding me very much of the late lamented Oliver Reed at his swashbuckling best when he got down to some sword play.
Neil Grew was a camp delight as the goldsmith and Luke Argles had fun with a cod French accent as the foreign merchant. Bruce Montgomery added to the fun as a crazed doctor, and getting the rotund Tim Young into skirts and a long wig to play Nell the kitchen wench was a masterstroke. Sophie Fisher was a forceful Adriana, contrasting nicely with Lisa lloyd as her gentle sister Luciana. Simeon Dawes was the regal duke with Chris Argles as the sad Egeon, father of the Antipholus twins, who is condemned to death.
The simple set worked perfectly in the garden surroundings, and the puppets used to illustrate the lengthy opening monologue by Egeon to set the scene quickly got us in the right mood for what was t follow. Bravo to all concerned. This was not an easy project and with bags of commitment, imagination and attention to the delivery of the comedy lines, it turned out to be a very enjoyable evening’s entertainment.
Diana Ecclestone for The Croydon Advertiser, Friday August 8 2008
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