The Comedy of Errors - What Country Friends is This?

Synopsis

Sets of twins, hilarious storytelling and wonderful humanity in the Bard's comic masterpiece and shortest play. Naturally, there are two cases of mistaken identity to deal with in this tale of 24 hours in the life of two sets of twins.

Our Review:

Simon Tavener - 25 April 2012

Ephesus is a dark, dangerous and violent place in Amir Nizar Zuabi’s foreboding and forbidding new production of one of Shakespeare’s sunniest plays. Death is a constant threat and the authorities are happy to indulge in various forms of torture in order to assert their control.

Despite the abundant humour this is a bleaker interpretation than one might expect and there are some abrupt tonal shifts (particularly in the scenes with the Duke) which sit rather uneasily with the text.

The set (Jon Bausor) and lighting (Jon Clark) work well to reinforce the industrial setting with particularly inventive use of a crane mechanism to effect some key scene changes. The stage sits on top of a tank of water adding another element of danger to the proceedings, creating some vivid stage pictures and strongly evoking the dockside feel

If only the work on the text had been as strong as the design.

The Comedy of Errors is one of Shakepeare's sho...

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Latest User Review

MelO - 30 September 2012:

I thought this was a great production. So good, in fact, that I went to see it twice, and took my two teenaged children the second time. They thoroughly enjoyed it too, it made Shakespeare exciting and accessible for them. It was funny, it was dark, and it was extremely moving at the end....

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