The Comedy of Errors

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:

11 January 2006

The Comedy of Errors is one of those plays that comes round relatively rarely in Shakespeare terms. It’s hard to see why: there’s more knockabout comedy than there is in many other of the bard's plays. Possibly, it’s the preposterous nature of the plot that makes it less popular with directors. The continual problem that they have to solve is how Antipholus of Syracuse doesn't fathom that he's being confused with his twin; it’s not as if he’s unaware of his brother’s existence, but the thought doesn’t appear to enter his head.

It’s a gaping hole in the plot, but Nancy Meckler’s spirited production certainly does its best to distract us from such inconsistencies in the story. The pantomime atmosphere that she engenders ensures that the evening is hugely entertaining.

If anything, the production is a little too heavy-handed; Meckler doesn’t miss any piece of business, sometimes a little too frenetically. Shakespeare drives the action forward relentle...

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158.143.173.4) - 30 January 2006:

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