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The Comedy of Errors

Open Air Theatre, West End
From: Thursday, 24th June 2010
To: Saturday, 31 July 2010

Our Review: Your Reviews:

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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:

30 June 2010

For his Regent's Park directing debut, Philip Franks has conjured up a 1940s vision of Ephesus. In his programme notes, he compares Ephesus to wartime Casablanca - the same iron law coupled with the emphasis on trading. What we get inside is something more akin to Carry On Up the Casbah, a frantic blend of music and slapstick.

There's nothing particularly wrong with that. Shakespeare’s story of two sets of separated identical twins has plenty of scope for invention, but the effect does mean that the more picaresque aspects of the goings on at Ephesus - what Antipholus of Syracuse describes as a “town full of cozenage” are missing. For example, many directors have made much more of the charlatan Pinch than does Franks, presenting him as a dry Scottish doctor.

Franks has also underplayed the unhappiness of the marriage between Adriana and Antipholus - and it’s this that lies at the heart of much of the play’s various confusions. ...

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